Handwashing

“ Wash your bodies as well as your faces, rubbing them all over with a coarse cloth. If you cannot wash thus every morning, pray do so once a week. Crying and cross children are often pacified by a gentle washing of their little hands and faces—it soothes them. Babies' heads should be washed carefully, every morning with soap. No scurf should be suffered to remain upon them. Get rid of all slops and dirty water at once. Disease, and even death, is often the consequence of our own negligence. Wash your rooms and passages at least once a week, use plenty of clean water ”

“ But as this is an enormous waste, the dwellers in towns, supplied with hard water, resort to other methods of washing, so as to economize soap. If our readers in London observe their habits in washing, they will perceive that the principal quantity of the water is used by them not as a cleanser, but merely for the purposes of rinsing off the very sparing amount employed for detergent purposes. In London, we do not wash ourselves in but out of the basin. A small quantity of water is taken on the hands and saturated with soap so as to form a lather ”

“ Employers shall, at their own expense, provide and maintain for the use of the workers, overalls or clothing for use during work only, in addition to gloves and respirators.
10. In a part of the building separated from the workrooms, there shall be provided for the use of the workers exposed to lead dust or fumes, a cloak room and lavatory kept in good order, provided with basins or taps in sufficient number, a plentiful supply of water, soap and a towel for each worker replaced at least once a week. ”

“ The washerman is provided with a foreign washing-machine, which economises time, soap, labour, and, most of all, the clothing to be washed. He is furnished with a patent wringer which requires no strength, and does not damage the fabrics. The washing-machine and the wringer are alike suffered to relapse into "innocuous desuetude," and the washerman continues to scrub and wrench the garments into holes and shreds as in former days. Eternal vigilance is the price at which innovations of this nature are to be defended. ”

“ Directly to the left of the bureau, with the door to the outside closet intervening, is a broken-down washstand, on which is a basin half full of water, a bottle of tooth-powder, tooth brushes and holder, soap and soap-dish, and other cheap toilet articles, and a small drinking-glass. Hung on the corner of the washstand is a soiled towel. Hung on the rack across the top of the washstand one can see a pair of stockings. On the floor in front of the washstand is a pitcher half full of water; also a large waste-water jar of the cheapest type. ”

“ The discomfort of these loathsome creatures is excessive, and one gets away from them as far as possible. Not having had a washing day for some days, I made one to-day, and myself turned washerwoman. The one idea of natives with respect to clothes washing, is to pile on the soap agony, and leave your garments as stiff as a board, and almost as uncomfortable to wear. I entrusted a pair of white flannel trowsers, and a white flannel coat to one of the boys to wash, but I tremble to think what the result will be. ”

“ All clothing is naturally changed on Sunday; and, if washed before dirt has had time to harden in the fiber of the cloth, the operation is much easier. The German custom, happily passing away, of washing only annually or semi-annually, is both disgusting, and destructive to health and clothes; the air of whatever room such accumulations are stored in being poisoned, while the clothes themselves are rubbed to pieces in the endeavor to get out the long-seated dirt. ”

“ The most durable stuff to nail up garden trees, is leather soaked in oil, and then drained before use. Old shoes and harness will thus be of use when no longer of service to the body.
154. General Washing.—Counterpanes, blankets, bed-hangings, &c., should be washed in summer, as they will then dry quickly, and be of good color.
By putting linen and cotton stockings to soak the night before they are to be washed, much soap and labor will be saved.
If clothes remain long dirty, they will not only require more soap and labor, but be much injured in washing. ”

“ We cannot neglect with impunity the maintenance of personal and household cleanliness ventilation, and an abundant supply of pure water. Soap and soda are the simplest expedients at our disposal for cleansing purposes. Experience teaches us that ancient cities, and even modern human dwellings, are admirably suited to act as reservoirs of contagion, and are constantly polluted by the excreta of the healthy as well as of the sick. We have, therefore, been compelled to resort to disinfection. ”

“ As regards personal cleanliness, many people still retain the old-fashioned fear of washing, which used to condemn the patient to a state of dirt, equally uncomfortable and injurious. Of course, care and discrimination are needful, and if there is any doubt on the matter, it is better to ask the doctor’s opinion; but as a rule, daily washing of face, neck, and arms is possible in all cases fit for home-nursing ”

“ And, of course, since no one is systematic about doing washing, all the dirty clothing and extra socks pile up until Saturday, and then on the half-holiday the scrubbing tables in the rear of the barracks are the most popular playgrounds.
The washing process is interesting. Every one lines up and dips into the same basin of water. Government soap is supplied in quantities, so are the scrubbing brushes. ”

“ The practice of travellers washing at the doors, or in the porticoes or stoops, or at the wells of taverns and hotels, once a day, is most prejudicial to health; the ablution of the body, which ought never to be neglected, at least twice a day, being inconsistent with it. I found it more difficult, in travelling in the United States, to procure a liberal supply of water, at all times of the day, in my bedchamber, than any other necessary. A supply far washing the hands and face once a day seems all that is thought requisite. ”

“ They consist almost invariably of a flood of water containing but a small percentage of refuse food, urine, soap, filth of the laundry, grease—everything, in fact, except fecal matter and the coarser garbage and ashes—constituting the waste of the household. ”

“ This discovery revealed the fact that filth in every form, whether in the rubbish-heap, the toilet, the garbage, the dust of the floor, or even in the folds of the hands and feet, the secretions of the skin and glands, is a culture bed for germ-producing diseases. The secret of the great power of cleanness as the true remedial measure for the prevention of pestilences is now apparent and every citizen must recognize that the obligation of applying that remedy rests with himself. ”

“ The Work of the Department of Street Cleaning.—In any city a menace to the health of its citizens exists in the refuse and garbage. The city streets, when dirty, contain countless millions of germs which have come from decaying material, or from people ill with disease. In most large cities a department of street cleaning not only cares for the removal of dust from the streets, but also has the removal of garbage, ashes, and other waste as a part of its work. The disposal of solid wastes is a tremendous task. ”

“ But supposing a family has time and opportunity to do the laundry work at home, a tablespoonful of liquid ammonia and a dessertspoonful of turpentine used in the washing water, where a quarter of a pound of soap has been finely sliced, will be found to remove dirt from the clothes without rubbing, saving labour, much soap, and the wear and tear of the things. ”

“ A thousand men a day come in for bath, disinfection, and clean clothes; 100 French women do the laundry work in huge tubs, and there are big disinfectors and drying and ironing rooms. The men of the F.A. do the sorting and all the work except the washing and ironing. And the beautifully-cared-for English cart-horses that belong to the F.A., and the waggons and the motor ambulances and the equipment, are all kept ready to move at a moment's notice. ”

“ Public Laundries There is more foundation for the arguments in favor of public wash houses than for the arguments in favor of public baths. Whatever the equipment in individual homes for bathing, and however excellent the individual water service, there are health considerations of a very different character to be met in connection with the family laundry work. In large towns and even in small towns in congested areas there are no facilities for drying the clothes and the sanitary conditions which result from indoor home drying are deplorable and dangerous. ”

“ For anything the healthy householder knows, the clothes he and his children wear have been mixed before, during, and after the process of washing, with the clothes that have come from the bed or the body of some sufferer from a contagious malady. Some of the most fatal outbreaks of disease I have met with have been communicated in this manner. In our model community this danger is entirely avoided by the establishment of public laundries, under municipal direction. No person is obliged to send any article of clothing to be washed at the public laundry ”

“ Yet clothes can be washed with soap and water and then leached,—that is, rinsed in lye water. Wood ashes are easy to get, and lye water—that is, water in which the ashes have been soaked—will destroy all germs. The clothes rinsed in it are as safe as those which have been boiled. ”

“ Cleansing agents.—Water is the great cleanser, and if it is not available in abundance and used freely, the washing is a failure. All other agents are merely aids to the water or substitutes for it. In primitive outdoor methods, still largely used in some countries, the flowing water is the only agent, and yet the result is fairly good. We aid the process by the use of soap or washing powders or ammonia. ”

“ One of the most effective ways for decontaminating articles is by thorough washing through several changes of strong soap and water. Contaminated clothing should not be worn again until thoroughly washed. ”

“ John Darke, Contractor for Cleansing, as to the Obstacles to Cleansing, and the Conversion of the Refuse of the Metropolis to Productive Use. What are the practical difficulties you find in the way of the cheap cleansing of the streets and houses of the metropolis?—The great difficulty of the cleansing of the metropolis arises from the want of proper receptacles for the filth. There is no filth in the metropolis that now, as a general rule, will pay the expense of collection and removal by cart, except the ashes from the houses and the soap lees from the soap-boilers ”

“ Some families have their washing done by hand, some by machinery, and some at laundries. Where washing, ironing, and mangling are carried on extensively, it is mostly by men, but women are employed to do the labor. It is thought by some that clothes are injured when washed at laundries. We do not know whether it originates from the plan of washing, or the carelessness of those employed. In New York is a public washing house, where, for four cents an hour, steam, water, and troughs can be used for washing clothes. ”

“ Vaccination is the first preventive; protection of water supply is the second; thorough disposal of wastes is a third; and sharp punishment for violation of sanitary regulations is a fourth. Habits of personal cleanliness will do much to prevent any such disease. ”

“ Paying scrupulous attention to cleanliness of the hands, face, teeth, and clothing. The hands and nails should always be cleaned with soap and nail-brush before food is eaten, and it is a wise practice also to wash out the mouth. ”

“ While the responsibilities of the dweller in the city are shared by the city officials, in that the city supplies the water and provides the sewer to carry off the waste from the kitchen, lavatory, and [175] toilet, yet the householder needs to see that absolute cleanliness is observed, that the pipes are regularly flushed, and the traps kept in good working order, that no decomposing substances are permitted to give off their poisonous gases in cellar, alley, or yard, and that the cellar and foundation walls are free from excessive moisture. ”

“ The precautions of simple cleanliness seem to be all that is necessary. On returning to their own houses, after having been among and handling lepers, the non-lepers, such as the physicians and the superintendent, merely wash their faces and hands with mildly antiseptic soap and change their coats. ”

“ With the poor, far less obstacles are an absolute barrier, because no privation is felt by them so little as that of cleanliness. The propensity to dirt is so strong, the steps so few and easy, that nothing but the utmost facilities for water can act as a counterpoise; and such is the love of uncleanliness, when once contracted, that no habit, not even drunkenness, is so difficult to eradicate. ”

“ Hence, at a very early period we find the development of the rudiments of systems of body-sewerage, providing for the escape of waste poisons through the food-tube, through the kidneys, through the gills and lungs, through the sweat glands of the skin. So that when the body is confronted by actual disease, it has all ready to its hand a remarkably effective and resourceful system of sanitary appliances—sewer-flushing, garbage-burning, filtration. ”