HEALTH NOTES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 6, 8 January 1908, Page 3

HEALTH NOTES.

By Dr. Andrew Wilson

A WORD ABOUT BATHS

It has often been said that soap is a great ciyiliser, the expression I presume arising from the fact that the maintenance of a high degree of cleanliness is characteristic of man at his best. If this be true, then it must necessarily follow that the rise of nations in a social sense may be gauged and estimated by its devotion to baths and bathing. A very considerable amount of ignorance exists regarding the special actions which j baths of different kinds are calculated to exert on the human body. The chief action of the bath is naturally in the first instance exerted on the skin surface. We must remember that a very large quantity of blood is always being sent through the fine blood vessels of the skin. From this blood is given forth by J the sweat glands of the skin waste 5 matters which these glands pour on | the skin surface. The evaporation of | the sweat which is always being pourl ed forth on the skin surface tends to j regulate this heat or temperature too ! rapidly, chill is the result, with its j accompanying risk of cold and lung troubles; so that, whilst Nature has provided in the skin a means for regulating the temperature or heat of our body, it is at the same time an extremely common occurrence to find that through some act of negligence or fault of our own we disturb tho natural relations of the skin and blood and thus acquire a certain risk of disease attack. THE ACTION OF BATHS. Turning now to the action of baths,

we must in the first place consider what happens when a person bathe& in cold water. It may be here said in the first place thitt no one shtrald ■ever take a cold bath when his body iis in a cooled-ddwn state. The bath may be taken when the body exhibits its natural conditions, but a tired and weary man whose temperature is liable to fall in consequence, of his exertions, should on no account take a cold bath. For him the best restorative is a tepid or even a warm bath. A cold bath can be taken when the body is heated. It is the depression of the bod" and a lowered temperature which prevents our having the natural re-action after the application of cold water, which re-action is a sign that the bath has really done us, good. The first effect of the application of cold water is, to drive the blood away from the surface of the body. If the bodily tone is of sufficiently strong character, the first effect of the shock produced by the cold water is succeeded by a rapid return of the blood from the internal parts to the skin surface. This return produces the well-known glow of heat which I have termed re-action. Supplemented by a rapid and brisk rub down with a bath towel the forces of the body soon re-assert themselves, and an increase of the circulation through the skin takes place, thus tending to the quicker excretion of waste matters as well as to produce a general effect as a result of the cold plunge. A WARM BATH. The'action of the warm bath is in some degree opposed to that of the cold bath, although after all the general result attained is the same in each case. The effect of the warm bath is to draw blood to the surface of the skin, which is in its way a desirable: thing, by way of stimulating the. process of getting rid of waste. jRe-action after a warm bath takes place when the circulation of the skin has returned to its ordinary state and when the blood flow drawn to the surface M the skin has been equalised by' its return to the internal parts of the body. We see the use of a <jhill being sustained when the .blood vessels of the skin are contracted and the skin circulation being enfeebled the sense of chilliness is produced. The warm bath overcomse the1 resistance of the blood vessels of the skin, causes them to expand, produces free circulation of the blood is the skin itself, and thus prevents the tendency to" colds. If persons who are chilled could immediately take a warm bath and rest afterwards in an equable temperature, the outset of many cases of rheumatism and of cases leading to lung troubles would be avoided. SEA BATHING. There is nothing specially beneficial in sea-bathing over the cold bath taken at home, except in so far as the fresh air and the stimulating effects of the salt water upon the skin are concerned. Greater precaution should.be observed in the case of sea-bathing against entering the water in a state of depression than is found advisable when a cold bath is taken at home. Again, the sea bather should never -indulge in his pastime soon after taking a meal. This practice is probably one of the causes of many fatal accidents due to the so-called "cramp," the effect being produced by an over-loaded otomacn under the influence of the sudden shock on plunging into the sea acting upon the heart, and through the heart affecting the circulation and the muscular system at large. The typical time for seabathing is undoubtedly before breakfast; It should not v be taken late at night, although persons in a very robust state- of health appear very frequeritly >to indulge in this custom without experiencing untoward results. Mnay^ persons exist under the delusion that a certain amount of salt material is absorbed by the skin in a v |Sea bath. ..This js entirely an err rp'n'eous belief 1, because the skin doesnot absorb water, and certainly; cannot, therefore, absorb any mineral substance dissolved in the water. OTHER BATHS. Other forms of baths depart from the simplicity of the ordinary cold or hot baths in respect of their' employr met vapour- as a; means of causing ,fre,e perspiration and of ridding the

skin surface of its extraneous dirt particles. Such baths are known as Turkish, Russian;, or. vapour baths. They are extremely in many diseased conditions, of which rheumatism perhaps presents the* most typical example. A vapour bath can easily be obtained at home by means of placing a spirit lamp below a cahehottomed chair, the body being enveloped from neck to feet in blankets. . The hot vapour passing up out of the confined space produces skin action of a very free description. Care must b& taken in all such cases that any subsequent chill is not contracted. Finally, it may be well to indicate the temperatures of baths by way of distinguishing one class from the other. The cold bath, of course, represents the temperature of the water in which it is taken. Tepid baths range from 85 to 95 degrees of heat. Warm baths range from 96 to 104 degrees, and hot batns from 102 to 110 degrees.