The Four Epochs of Woman's Life; A Study in HygieneGalbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Science
The Four Epochs of Woman's Life; A Study in Hygiene
Galbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Women -- Health and hygiene
Baths.-- The most ordinary forms of baths used may be classified under
sponge-, shower-, sitz-, and tub-baths. The sponge-bath as ordinarily
taken is of service for cleansing purposes, and if the water be cold
it tones up the system to some extent, and is so a preventive against
taking cold. The effect of this bath will be found to be vastly more
beneficial if salt is added to the bath in the proportion of a pint of
salt to a gallon of water; either sea-salt may be used or the ordinary
coarse salt. It is most advantageously taken sitting in a bath or
hat-tub, so that the entire surface of the body will be wet at the
same time, and the water can be allowed to run down the back and over
the chest. It is well to begin these baths at a temperature of 80∞ F.
and to gradually decrease this until the bath is taken at 70∞, which
is about the temperature of running water, and the bath should be kept
up at this. For most people the best time to take the bath is just
before retiring; this bath is not only very strengthening, but also is
excellent in cases of insomnia and nervousness.
Shower-baths.-- These may be taken after a hot bath, or taken alone
after violent muscular exercise. The body should be quickly scrubbed
off and the shower should be warm at the beginning and gradually
allowed to become cold, stooping over so as to get the full force of
the shower on the spine and over the region of the stomach and heart.
They will be found to be most refreshing after great muscular fatigue,
and, when taken after the hot tub-bath, greatly lessen the
susceptibility of the individual to taking cold.
Sitz-baths.-- These are given for their local effect in cases of
inflammation; whether this inflammation be of the kidneys, bladder, or
of the uterus and its adnexa. A sitz-tub is necessary to properly take
this form of bath. The water should be used as hot as is comfortable
to the patient, from 105∞ to 110∞ F., hot water being added as the
first cools off; a pint of salt should be added to the gallon of
water, and the patient should remain in this from five to eight
minutes. A blanket should be wrapped about the patient so that she
will be thrown into a perspiration; it is almost needless to say that
the only time for taking this bath is just before retiring, and that
this bath does make the woman more susceptible to taking cold, so that
it is necessary to wear an abdominal woolen bandage day and night.
Tub-baths.-- The tub-bath ought not, as a rule, be taken more than
twice a week, unless the cold plunge is used, which may be taken every
day. If the tub-bath is taken hot, the woman should remain in it not
much longer than is necessary to scrub off with a flesh-brush; this
bath should be followed either with a cold shower-bath, or the water
in the tub be gradually allowed to cool off until it is down to 70∞ F.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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