Foot bath

“ Fig. 12 illustrates the complete fitting up of this bather's shower-bath.
In hydropathic establishments it might be an improvement to add a small foot-bath, formed by a sinking of about 6 in. in the floor, and filled with hot water; for physiologists tell us it is bad for invalids to enter the hot rooms with cold feet. Supply pipes, a waste, and overflow would have to be provided for this bath, and a marble seat might be placed round it. A marble coping and mosaic flooring would render it pleasing in appearance. ”

“ If there is not a regular foot tub a pail that is large enough to put the foot in is better than a basin as it lets the water come up around the ankles. A person may sit in a chair or on the side of the bed. Have tub about half full of water and at first of a heat that feels com [228] fortable, putting more hot water in from time to time, until it is as hot as it can be stood. When adding hot water the feet should be away from the part of the tub where the water is poured in, and it should be added slowly to prevent possibility of burning. A person getting a foot bath should be kept very warm. ”

“ Foot-baths are excellent things for those who suffer from cold feet, and what at first sight seems paradoxical, a cold foot-bath in particular, which acts by enlivening the circulation in the feet; the bathing should, however, only last about a couple of minutes. Cold baths for the feet also act very beneficially in cases of headache, and especially in insomnia. They act upon the distribution of blood in the brain; the blood-vessels are thereby first distended and afterward they contract, which, lasting for a certain time, induces sleep ”

“ In soaking the feet, the mustard and water should only be moderately hot, to commence with, and the temperature of the foot-bath gradually raised by the addition of boiling water provided in a jug at the side of the bath. The general mistake is to have the water in the basin or bath so hot to commence with that the sufferer is quite unable to put even his toe in. ”

“ The feet may remain in the water about five minutes, and the instant they are taken out they should be rapidly and thoroughly dried by being well rubbed with a coarse towel. Sometimes bran is used in the water. Few things are more invigorating and refreshing after a long walk, or getting wet in the feet, than a tepid foot-bath, clean stockings and a pair of easy shoes. After the bath is the time for paring the toe-nails, as they are so much softer and more pliant after having been immersed in warm water. ”

“ One great secret of healthful bathing is, when warm or hot water is used, to follow it by an immediate application of cold water, which leaves the skin in a tonic condition. In preparation for going out in cold weather, nothing is so efficient a protection from the cold as a foot-bath. ”

“ When the feet are warm the circulation is more easily maintained. Following a hot bath, the hand spray can be used for the shower, applying the water quickly to all parts of the body before getting out of the tub. One should always use a cold sponge, spray, or shower, after a hot bath to close the pores. Then rub dry quickly and vigorously with a Turkish towel.
A sitz bath is recommended instead of a full tub bath, as it is a tonic of great value through its effect upon certain sympathetic nerve centers. ”

“ He next has a shower or douche of cold water, which effects the closure of the gaping pores, and is extremely refreshing. He then envelopes his body in a cotton mantle or sheet, and retiring to a cool room, to which the external air is freely admitted, he sits or reclines, remaining as impassive as possible, until the skin is thoroughly dried, and feels smooth and satiny in every part. The bather then resumes his usual dress, and the process is complete. ”

“ Fifteen minutes of vigorous exercise before the bath will add to its advantages.
Hot baths, if prolonged, are debilitating and should be taken less frequently. To clean out the pores and remove the excretions and dead cuticle from the surface of the body, two thorough hot baths a week will, for most persons, be sufficient. Some persons get on very well with only one, especially in the winter season when perspiration is less active. The dust, grime, and soil, resulting from one’s daily toil, must be removed from hands, face, and body, as often as occasion requires. ”

“ Now the Hydropathic mode of treatment is the very reverse of this, viz., to bathe the head in tepid, and place the feet in cold water to about the depth of three inches, up to the ankles—friction of the feet accompanying their immersion; the whole being continued for about ten minutes. Let any person suffering from cold feet try this remedy, and he will satisfy himself of the truth of the principles which enjoin it. ”

“ In bathing we have two distinct objects in view,—to keep the skin clean and to impart vigor. These are closely related, for to remove from the body worn-out material, which tends to injure it, is a direct means of giving vigor to all the tissues. Thus a cold bath acts upon the nervous system, and calls out, in response to the temporary abstraction of heat, a freer play of the general vital powers. Bathing is so useful, both locally and constitutionally, that it should be practiced to such an extent as experience proves to be beneficial. ”

“ Vigorous friction with a coarse glove succeeds the shampooing. This detaches the dead portions of the epidermis, and is an operation generally practised in the Lavatorium—a washing room adjoining the shampooing room. In the same place the bather receives copious ablutions with warm water. The less robust conclude the cleansing process with a douche, needle, spray, or shower bath, graduated from warm to cold ”

“ When the fingers are drawn forcibly over the skin of the practised bather, the white streaks caused by the pressure are instantly restored to their pink hue when the pressure is relaxed; the sanguineous stream seems to follow the pressure like a surge and instantly obliterates its effects; and the skin recoils with a snap like India-rubber when it is pulled away from the body and suddenly released. In the bath there are no wrinkles and no decrepit age; the skin becomes firm and elastic ”

“ The bath itself (inner chamber) is a spacious vaulted chamber, paved and lined with marble; beside it are four small rooms: a vapour continually rises from a fountain and cistern of hot water, with which the burnt perfumes mingle."
His notice of the process of shampooing differs somewhat from that of others:—"A gentle moisture diffuses itself over the body; a servant comes, gently presses and turns the bather, and when the limbs are flexible, makes the joints crack without trouble, then masses (touches lightly) , and seems to knead the body without giving the slightest sensation of pain. ”

“ Bathing after hard exercise must be indulged in judiciously: a bath after a day’s shooting or cricketing, or an afternoon at lawn-tennis—to an enthusiast, who really plays, by far the hardest and most tiring form of amusement of the three—is pleasant and invigorating, and better understood than when it was an article of faith that to plunge into 38cold water, when heated, was almost equivalent to committing suicide. ”

“ In bathing at home, after lathering the whole body with warm water and soap, a cold sponge bath containing a handful or two of either Tidman’s or Brill’s Sea Salt will be found very invigorating.
We have before us a splendidly got up work entitled “Luxurious Bathing,” published by Messrs Field and Tuer, Leadenhall Street, E.C. The book is beyond praise, its well-executed etchings entitle it to a place on the drawing-room table, and its advice to those who value health, is simply invaluable. ”

“ While the perspiration is spreading in a sheet over the skin, trickling downwards in lively rills, and falling in continuous drops from all the salient points of the frame, the bather gently rubs his body and limbs with his hands; the softened cuticle is raised in thin flakes, and if the bath be taken but seldom, the cuticle is rubbed up in such quantity as to form little elliptical rolls, more or less begrimed with dirt. ”

“ A brisk rubbing should be kept up until the skin is in a good healthy glow. This bath is followed by a feeling of great exhilaration, and it gives a beautiful glow to the face and skin. It removes the tired feeling of the day’s work, and leaves one feeling greatly refreshed for the evening. A daily ablution or a daily shower, with friction, will not cause an undue removal of the oil of the skin. All cold baths, when given in suitable cases, tone up the system to resist disease, and are the best preventives against ordinary colds and sore throat. ”

“ To resist this is of the utmost consequence.” “The operation of bathing in water endowed with much power, from heat and other circumstances, is not to be viewed lightly. Much mischief has arisen—nay, fatal results have followed, from its indiscriminate adoption. A rich merchant, who, but a few hours before, had been noticed on the public promenade after dinner, on the day after our arrival, was found dead in a bath at 8 o’clock of the same evening. A lady was pointed out to me, who had lost the use of her limbs after using three hot baths.” ”

“ But you must not do this unless you keep warm while you are doing it, and your skin must be pink when you have finished. If you are chilly after rubbing, you should use tepid, even very hot, water for your morning bath. In summer you can bathe all over easily; but in winter, unless your room is warm, it is enough to splash the upper half of your body. Once or twice a week you should take a good hot bath with soap and then sponge down in cool water. ”

“ Of course, certain baths may be advantageously prolonged in cases of disease; but no intelligent physician will now recommend the antiquated practice which we sometimes see represented by a patient seated in a tub, with an open book in hand.
24. It is of extreme importance that the patient should be carefully dried after any bath. A large sheet is much better for this purpose than a towel. An old linen or cotton sheet is preferable to a new one, being softer. Full directions are given under the heading, “Dry Rubbing-Sheet.”
25. A patient should never be left chilly after a bath. ”

“ All of this trouble and swindling might be saved if people would only consider for a moment the fact that all the benefit they obtain from bathing is derived from the exercise, the temperature, 147and pure water, and not from any impurities which the water may chance to contain.
Sea-bathing is usually overdone. More benefit will be gained by one or two daily baths than by a half-dozen. Fifty baths in a single week are not equivalent to a single bath each in fifty weeks. ”

“ Cool bathing, in hot weather, is very useful; but the water should be very little cooler than the skin of the child. When the constitution is delicate, the water should be slightly warmed. Simply sponging the body, freely, in a tub, answers the same purpose as a regular bath. In very warm weather, this should be done two or three times a day, always waiting two or three hours after food has been given. ”

“ The bather ought not to plunge at once into the bath, but first to sponge the chest and stomach with the warm water. It is hurtful to read in the bath, and more so, to go to sleep. On the contrary, the bather should keep in constant motion, to use friction with his own hands over the chest and abdomen. “If, during immersion, the patient be seized with feverish heat, chilliness, shivering, head-ache, oppression on the chest—or any kind of malaise, he should immediately quit the bath, and examine whether or not the temperature has been too high or too low. ”

“ Cold baths may be taken anyhow and anywhere, provided the whole of the body is immersed or thoroughly sponged over, but the most decided benefit will be derived from the plunge bath. However, equally successful results may be gained by the use of a large bath well filled with water, the body being well sluiced with the water from a large sponge. The shower is also of great benefit, but in some conditions of body the sudden shock has rendered the nervous system so irritable that it has undone all the good intended by the reaction. ”

“ Very hot baths have a distinct relaxing effect; they favor the onset of sleep and can be taken to best advantage just before retiring. There is nothing in the common idea that a hot bath opens the pores of the skin; the only pores the skin has are the openings of the sweat glands, and these do not vary in size. What a hot bath does do, is to cause a marked flushing of the skin as the result of which the body loses heat rapidly. It is necessary, therefore, after a hot bath to wrap oneself warmly so that excessive loss of heat shall not occur. ”

“ The temperature of the water should be adapted to the age and strength of the bather. The young and robust can safely endure cold baths, that would be of no benefit but indeed an injury to those of greater age or of less vigorous conditions of health. After taking a bath the skin should be rapidly and vigorously rubbed dry with a rough towel, and the clothing at once put on. ”

“ It has been my custom to recommend a hot soap-and-water bath once or twice a week, depending upon the individual requirements, and a daily cold bath. The hot bath is to be used as a cleansing agent while the cold bath is a tonic exclusively. A regimen of this sort will usually be satisfactory where one is taking a general system of exercise nearly every day which will insure a certain amount of internal functional activity. Note, however, that the cold bath, though of some value, is not necessary, when following the hot-water-drinking regimen. ”