BATHING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XV, Issue 5177, 20 June 1878, Page 2

BATHING.

When the laws of the Christian religion were engrafted oa or took the place of those of the Mosaic dispensation, no alterations were made in reap&ct to the regulations regardiuJ personal uleanline33. These were all-sullicient, and vrere supposed to remain in full force. The Cainese and the Hindoo religions, which are the two oldest in the world, aud data b*ck almost to the era o£ those Megalosauri, w'.iieh wallowed about in the slush of a half-cooked worid, and scratched their hides against fern trees, and those overgrown reeds which philosophers suppose, without euilicient reason, melted d._,wn into coal, held, and continue to hold, the necessity of friqueut ablutions to cleanliue3S. Maaotnot advocated the same thing. The old saw has it that " oleaulinesa is nexc to godJineas." Physicians teii U3 tiiat a pure mind cannot exist in an impure bo>iy. Old Celsus said, " husih sana hi corpora satio," or, a " saae mind exists [or oau ouly exist] in a sound body." The body canaot exist in a healthy stats unless the perpetually decaymg yartul-j3, with the adherent abnormal matters, are periodically washed away. Hence the absolute necessity of frequentiy-reeurring ablutions. A fellow citizen, a few mouths ago, thought there was a good opening ia this oegrimad town, and, at a very cos';, converted his warehouse into an establishment where the "sons of labour" aud others ir.ig'ut parity, lubricate, and loosen their hiiies without the tedious operation of ec-atcLin o ' against a post or plunging about in their s-.ar.-h for cleanliness in a mixture of water, uiud from the streets, and coal tar from •-ha gas works. lie laboured under the delusion thai; the Corporation would assist him iu lowering the death rate. Bud, no! They would neither do thU nor lower ta.;;r own rates. The laws of the City Corpjraticn, like those of the Aie-.ies and Persians jf old, are immutable. They are tixed as the ideas in the ekuils of sauii of those who formed and continue them. The result of his applications was that ha was tol-i there was a a iixed scale for water, and if he wanted the precious oxy by (irate he must pay the established price, or his clients must remain unwashed ! Mauafaotoriej, be it said, have the liquid supplied at a very considerable reduction on the sc »le of 2s per ltKKt gallons. Why, then, should not au establishment, having for its object the publication of the sweltering hides of the " horny handed sons of toil" on their return lrooi daily labour, ba allowed the use of liquid at the bare cost of its supply '■ The petition was shelved, and the consequence is that the promulgator or promoter, or whatever you may call him, ia obliged to charge a price which has almo3t tapued the tstabiiehment, and thus defeated the object that he had in view. Perhaps the idea of a cheap cleansing was too much for 1b.3 consciences of our sapient Board of many by lar.s, knowing, as they must, that purification is required there as elsewhere. "Charity begins at home/' and bodily purification follows too naturally upon mental purification fur the subject to be entertained. Let the dog return to his vomit and the pig to his wallow. The moral and bodily inactions of. Auckland, the immaculate, need no purgations ; aud an enlightened corporation, in a state of cleanliness and beatification, cannot possibly imagine the necessity of less gifted workingmen for a cheap means of purification. Good for the physicians ! Folywog.