Many weakly babes have been sacrificed to their mothers’ vanity by subjecting the little ones to the exhausting process of two or three elaborate baths and costly toilets each day. Boys living near ponds, creeks, or rivers often waste their physical forces by spending a large part of the warm summer days in the water. They go in too frequently and remain too long. A morning swim of half an hour, or two dips, one in the forenoon and another in the afternoon, of twenty minutes each, is as much as the strongest boy should take.
=Regularity.=--In bathing, as in exercise, regularity and system should control, if any physical advantage is expected to follow. A bath now and then, when it happens to suit the convenience of the bather, will not tone up the system nor fortify it against colds. A daily cold bath is best. If that is impossible, it should be taken at least three or four times a week.
=Best Time for Bathing.=--As remarked elsewhere, every form of bath makes greater or less demand upon the vital forces, and some forms are quite exhausting. It is therefore proper to consider the most suitable times for bathing. It is best not to take a bath when the body is much exhausted, nor to engage in intense physical or mental exercise immediately after a bath.
Under no circumstances should a bath be taken directly after a full meal. Generally speaking the most appropriate time is from two to three and a half hours after a meal, preferably near the noon hour.
For the cold bath, taken quickly, no time is better than just after rising. A warm bath just before retiring will quiet the nerves and assist in producing sleep.
=The Value of Soap.=--The eminent chemist, Liebig, asserts that the civilization of a nation is high in proportion to the amount of soap it consumes, and that it is low in proportion to its use of perfumes. The cleanliness and refinement of an individual may be measured by the same test. Soap removes impurity; perfume is often employed to conceal it.
Many soaps are positively injurious to the skin. In this, as in other matters, judgment and caution must be exercised. A free use of a good skin soap, with warm or hot water, may be recommended for the weekly or semi-weekly bath when the primary object is cleanliness. The soapy lather should be vigorously rubbed over the body, by the hand or a small coarse towel, so as to remove all excretions from the pores, all greasy deposits of the sebaceous glands, and all dead scales from the cuticle.