Do We Wash Too Much?

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 8, 24 February 1909, Page 36

Do We Wash Too Much?

One of the most cherished traditions of tne Britisn race, the "cold tub every morning,” is mecilessly criticised by Dr. J. 11. ularKe in "Vital Economy; or, How to Conserve Your .Strength,” published by Air. Fisher Unwin. Dr. Clarke contends that in the matter of health, we are enslaved by words and phrases: “The 'pores of the skin is a phrase at the shrine of which many feeble folk are sacrificing- the last flicker of their energy in tile daily morning tub. Plenty of fresh air’ is another tyrant which has claimed numberless victims. “1 once lost a good patient, who was always ailing, by cutting off his daily morning tub,” said Dr. Clarke. “He grew strong and put on weight . . . and it is one of his delights to shock his friends by telling them how many years it is since he had a bath!” Too much soaping and scrirbv>i» a , according to Dr. Clarke, removes the lubricating material secreted in the glands of the skin to make it soft and supple, and the removal leaves the skin more sensitive to atmospheric changes. The skin is a self-cleansing organ. By soaking the body, the self-cleansing cells absorb water, swell up, and die. “One has only to rub oneself, after a. bath, and they come off in little rolls. These do not consist of dirt, as is the popular idea, but of dead skin-cells. I often tell people that it is quite possible for them to wash themselves dirty. They remove so much of the protecting surface that they give the dirt a real chance of getting into their skins.” Dr. Clarke recommends as a substitute for a bath a folded towel, wetted in the centre and passed rapidly all over the body. This will “open the pores” sufficiently without entailing any shock.