Personal hygiene and physical training for womenGalbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Science
Personal hygiene and physical training for women
Galbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Physical education and training; Women -- Health and hygiene
In cold weather the shower, like all other forms of baths, must be
taken in a warm room. The shower bath can be taken every day to the
greatest possible advantage. An ideal way is to rest for half an hour
on coming home in the afternoon; to sleep, if possible, then take a
quick scrub, and follow it first by the hot shower of 100° to 104°
F., and finish with the cold shower. A brisk rubbing should be kept
up until the skin is in a good healthy glow. This bath is followed
by a feeling of great exhilaration, and it gives a beautiful glow
to the face and skin. It removes the tired feeling of the day’s
work, and leaves one feeling greatly refreshed for the evening. A
daily ablution or a daily shower, with friction, will not cause an
undue removal of the oil of the skin. All cold baths, when given in
suitable cases, tone up the system to resist disease, and are the
best preventives against ordinary colds and sore throat.
A hot tub-bath is best taken at night just before retiring. In winter
it must never be taken immediately before going out-of-doors,
because the pores of the skin are more or less open and there is
great danger of chilling. A hot tub-bath, remaining in the bath for
some minutes, should not be taken more than twice a week, as it is
too debilitating, and a prolonged stay in the hot water causes an
actual loss of flesh.
A woman may take a warm sponge bath in a warm room at any time
of the month, but during the menstrual period she must, under no
consideration, take a cold tub-bath or even a cold sponge-bath, since
this would be apt to cause a chill of the surface of the body and a
congestion, if not an actual inflammation, of the pelvic organs.
No bath should be taken within two hours after eating, as the bath
draws the blood from the stomach toward the surface of the body and
so interferes with digestion.
=The Care of Wash-cloths.=—After using each time, the wash-cloth must
be thoroughly washed, well rinsed, and hung up to dry. But this is
not sufficient: once every week all wash-cloths must be sent to the
laundry to be boiled, thus insuring the destroying of any germs that
may lurk in the cloth. If a woman has any kind of skin disease, it
is quite possible for her to reinfect herself after the disease has
apparently become cured. Further, each member of the family should
have her own individual towels, soap, and wash-cloths. Aside from
all sanitary questions, in a matter so intimate as the bath, there
is something repulsive in the thought of having your toilet articles
used by any one else.
A pure Castile soap is one of the best that can be used. All cheap
scented soaps should be avoided, as they are apt to contain impure
materials that will actually injure the skin. If the skin is rough,
rubbing it with a good sand-soap, and rubbing the same on the
flesh-brush, will remove many of the scales and leave the skin much
smoother and softer. Medicated soaps should never be used except by
the direction of a physician.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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