BATHROOMS A LUXURY

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 3 January 1931, Page 14

BATHROOMS A LUXURY

We may poke fun at the Polisn Bill to make people have a bath at least once a month, but- (writes a correspondent of the “Manchester 'Guaru-an ; ’) it is of some historic interest to note how views on the virtues of washing have been brought round to the full circle. The Oxford don’s “Baths? Baths? You’re only up hero eight weeks! ’ ’ was a fair expression of current opinion 70 or 'SO years ago. London ■had not a single private bathroom in 11800, and when the 'Lord Mayor in I'B'lia asked for a shower-bath his l request was turned down sharply on the ground that “the need of same has not- been heretofore complained of.” It is said that the first bathroom in a I private house in the United 'States- was I one installed by Adam 'Thompson at 'Cineinatti in- 1 ! 84'2, and it was violently denounced by doctors because the indulgence it invited would cause “phthisis, rheumatic fevers, inflammation of the lungs, and the whole category of zymotic- diseases.’’ In 1843, Philadelphia considered an ordinance forbidding baths' between Ist November and loth March, and the cause of cleanliness was won bv only two votes. Virginia’s opinion of bath-tubs is shown by the '3O dollars tax she clapped on them, and Boston, determined to ■stand l no nonsense, forbade anybody to have a bath except on the advice of a doctor.