A hot Afternoon.
The Soap-bath obtains a rapidly increasing number of adherents, and when once the habit of taking it is formed, it will not readily be abandoned, as it forms one of the pleasures, if not the pleasure of the day, and moreover, can be indulged in all the year round.
The fair sex will find the Soap-bath vastly superior to any cosmetic: it renders the skin as soft as an infant’s, and, with increased health, the complexion will appear more delicate and clear, tinged with a healthy colour beyond the power of art to produce.
It appears from the evidence obtained by modern scientific research, that hot water destroys the germinating power of malignant contagious diseases, and that soap chemically poisons it. These germs or spores are carried about by every wind that blows: and when it is borne in mind that, roughly speaking, a million of such germs will lie on a threepenny-piece; the value, as a preventive of contagion, of a thorough daily ablution with soap, may be estimated.
The Romans, according to Pliny, raised the temperature of their air baths to almost boiling point, and they were apparently well acquainted with the grateful and invigorating after-application of cold water.
It is no slight recommendation of the Soap-bath, that while being an absolute luxury both for the feeble and robust, it cannot be resorted to as a mere indolent indulgence: the lungs and muscles are called into full action, a moderate though pleasant shock is encountered, and the bather has the satisfaction of knowing that all the pleasure and advantages gained are actually earned.
The application of the Soap-bath is very simple: the bather is armed with a large lump of good ordinary yellow soap, and a loose washing glove (the white and very soft “Turkish” is the pleasantest, or if a hard glove be preferred, the “Baden” may be used) big enough to come over the wrist, and standing découvert in front of the washing basin containing hot water, quickly and vigorously covers the body from head to foot with a thick and abundant lather. By using hot water, chills are avoided, and the body is kept sufficiently warm to avoid the unpleasantness, and often harm, following repeated applications of mere handfuls of cold liquid.
The soap application may take about three or four minutes at most; the very robust may use tepid water, but most persons will find warm or hot more agreeable; and more delicate persons whose finger-tips have the unpleasant habit of turning numb and white upon the application of cold water, will find in the Soap-bath an agreeable means of bathing otherwise perhaps unattainable.
Cold bathing promotes vigour in the young and healthy, and the Soap-bath has the same effect in an intensified degree, with the further inestimable advantage—except where there are positive indications of lung or heart disease—of being alike suitable to the robust and weakly.
With the body thoroughly warm comes the plunge into cold water, which must be got over quickly—once, twice, or thrice, overhead—but a couple of rapid dips are sufficient to remove every particle of soap.