Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1886 — Bathing and Why We Should Bathe. [ARTICLE]

Bathing and Why We Should Bathe.

Resolutions of Thanks. —At a meeting of Rensselaer Post No. 84 G. A. R., June 18, resolutions were adopted as follows: Resolved: That the thanks of this Post be extended to Comrade David Handley for his able and eloquent Memorial Sermon, May 30, Resolved: That Comrade Edwin P. Hammond be tendered the thanks of the Post for his excellent address on last Memorial Day. Resolve : That a copy of The Message containing the Sermon and Address be filed in the archives of the Post Resolved: That The Message be tendered the thanks of the Post for publishing the Sermon and the Address and i'o gratuitous printing for the Post.

Among all the appliances for health and comfort to mankind, we think wo may safely say that there is nothing so well known, so useful, and withal so comforting, and yet so little practiced, so carelessly and thoughtlessly neglected, as judicious bathing. The skin of the human body, from head to foot, is a network of pores. One cannot put a finger on a single place without covering several hundred little openings, which ought always to be kept free and clear of obstructions. As evidence of the trflth of this statement, we need only call to mind the great drops of sweat so often seen gathering on one’s face and other parts of the body in warm weather—especially during time of over-exertion. Those pores are the opening into minute tubes or channels which lead through unseen meanderings into the sanctum of life within. The dust which comes into contact with animals covered with hair is mostly kept out, and the perspiration conducted away from the pores of the skin by those hairs; hence bathing is not so essential with them as with mankind, whose bodies are practically denuded of such protection. The glutinous mass of perspiration, dust ana filth which gathers on the surface of the body, naturally covers and clogs the pores, and often enters them and poisons the system. To. remove that filth, frequent ablutions and occasional immersions in water are exceedingly desirable, and usually indispensable to health and comfort, consequently every family should have a convenient bath —arid a full bath, too —of some kind, not only for general neatness of person, so desirable to every individual of taste and culture, but as a means of preserving health, and in many cases, especially under the advice of a good physician, as the safest, pleasantest and one of the most powerful and efficient means of combating disease. Directed by good judgment and wise counsel, a bath is a valuable air diary to other remedies, and it can be used when internal remedies cannot. In the long catalogue of diseases to which flesh is heir, scarcely one can be named in the treatment of which a bath is useless. To those blessed with good health, a bath, as a common-sense appliance, gives thrift and growth to healthy functions, a brightness and delightful serenity, a clearness of mind and buoyancy of spirit. It is certainly a blessing to both mind and body. For the mental worker it is a nerve tonic. A thorough immersion in water of proper temperature will calm and give strength and tone to his whole system. The in-door laborer who gets but a scanty supply ol fresh air, needs a bath to obtain those invigorating elements so common in the open air. The out-door laborer—especially the farmer—who works with heroic energy all day long, unavoidably gathers on the entire surface of his body a complete prison wall of dust and thickening, gummy perspiration; and when his day’s work is done, he needs then more than any other things, not only a wash, but a good, luscious, full bath to fit him for a clean bed and a refreshing sleep. _ Finally, every one needs a bath at times and every human habitation should contain something for a complete immersion in water, and since convenient and efficient portable baths at comparatively low figures are now extensively advertised for sale, there is little excuse for any one to be without this priceless benefit.— Western Rural.

Some one wrote to the Manchester (Eng.) Examiner asking if Earl de Grey was the son and heir of the Marquis of Ripon. In its “Answers to Correspondents” the paper replied that he was—adding by way of explanation that it was only a courtesy title, the young gentleman being “in point of law plain Mr. Robinson.” The Marquis did not like this, and tlje next day dispatched the following missive to the offending journal: “Lord Ripon does not wish the Manchester Examiner sent any more.”