The Four Epochs of Woman's Life; A Study in Hygiene

by Anna M. Galbraith

Baths.— The most ordinary forms of baths used may be classified under sponge-, shower-, sitz-, and tub-baths. The sponge-bath as ordinarily taken is of service for cleansing purposes, and if the water be cold it tones up the system to some extent, and is so a preventive against taking cold. The effect of this bath will be found to be vastly more beneficial if salt is added to the bath in the proportion of a pint of salt to a gallon of water; either sea-salt may be used or the ordinary coarse salt. It is most advantageously taken sitting in a bath or hat-tub, so that the entire surface of the body will be wet at the same time, and the water can be allowed to run down the back and over the chest. It is well to begin these baths at a temperature of 80° F. and to gradually decrease this until the bath is taken at 70°, which is about the temperature of running water, and the bath should be kept up at this. For most people the best time to take the bath is just before retiring; this bath is not only very strengthening, but also is excellent in cases of insomnia and nervousness.

Shower-baths.— These may be taken after a hot bath, or taken alone after violent muscular exercise. The body should be quickly scrubbed off and the shower should be warm at the beginning and gradually allowed to become cold, stooping over so as to get the full force of the shower on the spine and over the region of the stomach and heart. They will be found to be most refreshing after great muscular fatigue, and, when taken after the hot tub-bath, greatly lessen the susceptibility of the individual to taking cold.

Sitz-baths.— These are given for their local effect in cases of inflammation; whether this inflammation be of the kidneys, bladder, or of the uterus and its adnexa. A sitz-tub is necessary to properly take this form of bath. The water should be used as hot as is comfortable to the patient, from 105° to 110° F., hot water being added as the first cools off; a pint of salt should be added to the gallon of water, and the patient should remain in this from five to eight minutes. A blanket should be wrapped about the patient so that she will be thrown into a perspiration; it is almost needless to say that the only time for taking this bath is just before retiring, and that this bath does make the woman more susceptible to taking cold, so that it is necessary to wear an abdominal woolen bandage day and night.

Tub-baths.— The tub-bath ought not, as a rule, be taken more than twice a week, unless the cold plunge is used, which may be taken every day. If the tub-bath is taken hot, the woman should remain in it not much longer than is necessary to scrub off with a flesh-brush; this bath should be followed either with a cold shower-bath, or the water in the tub be gradually allowed to cool off until it is down to 70° F.

Headaches.— Headaches, aside from those of acute illness, may be roughly divided into three classes: first, those which are due to indigestion; second, neuralgic headaches; and, third, those due to pelvic inflammations. The headaches due to indigestion are usually located over the eyes and all over the forehead; they are more or less constant and are accompanied by other symptoms of indigestion, and very often by constipation. The feces are allowed to remain in the bowels overlong, the toxic matters are taken up by the blood, and headaches and vertigo result.

Neuralgic headaches are of an entirely different character; the pains are here of a lancinating character, and are not confined to any one region of the head. As a rule, they are accompanied by neuralgic pains in other parts of the body. Neuralgia generally means a rundown state of the system from overwork, worry, or malaria, and tonics and cod-deliver oil are indicated.

A constant dull pain on the top of the head or in the back of the neck generally indicates some uterine inflammation, and can only be cured by removing the cause. In any case it is very evident that taking the various "headache powders" with which the market is flooded will never cure the woman of her headaches; and many of these powders are very dangerous, especially where the heart is weak, as most of them are heart-depressants.

Fainting.— Fainting may be due to a weak heart, to heart disease, or to sudden shock, as on receiving a bad piece of news; during pregnancy the close air of a room may cause a woman to faint. The first thing to be done is to lay the woman down on the floor or bed with nothing under her head; loosen all her clothes about the neck and waist, and throw the windows open so that she will get plenty of fresh air. If she is able to drink, give her one teaspoonful of aromatic spirits of ammonia in four tablespoonfuls of cold water. If the feet are cold, place hot-water bottles to them to improve the circulation. And if at the end of fifteen minutes she does not show signs of decided improvement, give her two tablespoonfuls of whisky in an equal quantity of hot water. In the meantime the physician will have been summoned. These attacks of fainting often occur in a crowded ball-room, and are due to tight lacing and the poor ventilation of the room.

Hemorrhage.— A profuse hemorrhage is the most alarming as well as the most dangerous thing which can befall a woman, and the very nearest doctor should be summoned until the family physician can be gotten there. The woman should be made to lie down wherever she may happen to be, her clothes loosened, the windows thrown open, so that she will not only have plenty of fresh air, but that the air shall be cool. If the blood is coming from the mouth, give her pieces of ice to hold in it; if she coughs up the blood, it would be well to put a bag of ice-cold water or cloths wrung out of ice-water on the chest. If the woman is suffering from a uterine hemorrhage, have her take at once a hot vaginal douche, from 118° to 120° F., and have the foot of the bed raised. The head should always be kept low.

Women hold their health in their own hands to a far greater extent than they have ever dreamed of; and if the majority of women suffer, it is very often their own fault, either because they have disregarded nearly every law of health, or have allowed trivial ailments to go on until they were almost incurable.