A plunge into cold water when one is warm from exercise is intensely grateful, and may be indulged in with impunity even when much heated, provided the plunge be taken the moment the clothes are removed; the danger is in standing about on the brink, during which time the body rapidly cools, and cold may be taken.
Although perfectly safe to plunge into cold water, no matter how much the body may be heated, care must be taken to avoid it if there are feelings of lassitude and exhaustion; these are sure signs of over fatigue, and a cold bath under such circumstances is not only weakening, but might prove absolutely dangerous. A complete change of clothing must be ready, both for comfort, and to prevent any chance of taking cold through putting on clothes rendered damp by previous exercise.
The morning-bath forms a tolerably sure index as to the manner in which the previous evening has been spent. Morning exhaustion, and antipathy to cold water, may follow after an evening’s dancing with its attendant late hours, and nature will probably protest against too great a shock: it will be advisable to take the cold bath from five to ten degrees warmer than usual, or it may be deferred two or three hours.
The much vexed question as to the advisability of continuing the bath through a severe and prolonged, or even an ordinary winter, must be left open, as it is not only unadvisable but absolutely impossible to lay down fixed rules. Each bather must be guided entirely by his own state of health and sense of vitality.
Even among the well-to-do, the bath is by no means so universal or so well appreciated as might be desired, the daily thorough ablution being looked upon by too many as a necessarily unpleasant process to be shunned or superficially hurried through, with no enjoyment and little advantage: thorough ablution in the form of the Soap-bath is an absolute luxury, and moreover is followed by an immediate increase of health, strength and mental vigour.
The primary object of taking a bath is cleanliness, and it is now better understood that the mere application of cold water to the skin does not cleanse, but merely closes the pores, the after vigorous use of towels doing so still further by rubbing in the impurities and natural secretions of the skin.
Cleanliness in connection with the bath should be strictly enforced: it should be cleaned and dried daily and occasionally scrubbed, and the washing glove well rinsed after use.
The delicately-soft skin of Egyptian women is said to be produced by the habitual use of the loofah, a fibrous flesh-glove woven by Dame Nature, the use of which is to be commended for finally cleansing the skin after the soap application with the ordinary washing glove. The loofah not only readily removes every particle of soap, but acts as a mildly invigorating flesh-glove, increases the suppleness of the skin in a marked degree, and moreover possesses the happy faculty of completely rinsing itself the moment it is dipped into water. Some persons discard the washing glove altogether, and use a loofah for applying the soap to the body: loofahs are of different degrees of texture, and when thus used, a fine close quality should be selected.
The sponge after use should be dipped in clean water and pressed out—not wrung, which tends to tear it—as nearly dry as possible: if habitually left charged with water, or—as sometimes done with a vague idea of sweetening—put out wet in the sun to dry, it will not only rot quickly but probably smell offensively, and even become unpleasant to the touch. To restore its sweetness, the sponge should be placed for a day or so in a basin of water in which a large piece of washing soda has been dissolved: the water should be changed once or twice, or oftener if necessary, and the sponge well squeezed out each time.
A word about the soap:—the best, perhaps, is that known as “John Knight’s Primrose,” an ordinary yellow soap, sweet and sound, and apparently containing none of the foreign matter sometimes found in soaps of a commoner and cheaper description. Scented soap must be avoided, especially for using habitually and liberally over the whole body.