Hi Guys
I was watching the news this morning and its reporting that Bed Bugs have taken over New York.
Luckily, I have a snapshop from London in July 1840 Titled
Cleanliness
To keep the body in a cleanly condition is it the third important requisite for the preservation of health.
This becomes necessary, in consequence of a very important natural process which is constantly going on near and upon the surface of the body.
The process in question is that of perspiration. The matter here concerned is a watery secretion, produced by glands near the surface of the body, and sent up through the skin by channels imperceptibly minute and wonderfully numerous.
From two to six pounds of this secretion is believed to exclude through these channels or pores in the course of twenty four hours, being in fact the chief form taken by what is called the waste of the system. The remainder passing off by the bowls, kidneys and lungs.
To promote free egress of this fluid is of utmost importance to health; for when it is suppressed, disease is apt to fall upon some other organs concerned with the discharge of waste.
One of the most notable checks which perspiration experiences is that produced by a current of cold air upon the skin, in which case the pores instantly contract and close, and the individual is seized with some ailment either in one or the other of waste. Whichever is in him the weakest, or the internal lining of some part of the body, all of which is sympathetic with the condition of the shin.
A result of the nature of that last described is usually recognised as a cold or catarrh. We are not at present called on particulary to notice such effects of checked perspiration, but shall allude to others of a less perceptable, though not less dangerous nature.
The fluid alluded to is composed, besides water, of certain salts and animal matters, which being solid, do not pass away in vapour, as does the watery part of the compound, but rest on the surface where they have been discharged.
There, if not removed by some artificial means, they form a layer of hard stuff. This unavoidably impedes the egress of the current perspiration.
By cleanliness is mearly meant the taking of proper means to prevent this or any other extraneous matter from accumulating on the surface, to the production of certain hurtful consequences.
Ablution or washing is the best means of attaining this end, and accordingly it is well for us to wash or bathe the body.
Many leave by far the greater part of their bodies unwashed, exept perhaps on rare occasions, thinking it enough if the parts exposed to common view be in decent trim.
If the object of cleaning were solely to preserve fair appearances, this might be sufficient, but the great end, it must be seen, is to keep the skin in a fit state for its peculiar and very important functions.
Frequent change of the clothing next to the skin is of course a great aid to cleanliness, and may partly be esteemed as a substitute for bathing, seeing that the clothes absorb much of the impurities, and, when changed, may be said to carry these off.
But still this will not serve the end nearly so well as frequent ablution of the whole person. Any one will be convinced of this who goes into a bath, and uses the flesh-brush in cleansing the body.
The quantity of scurf and impurity which he will then remove from a body which has changes of linen even once a day, will suprise hime.
Considering the importance of personal cleanliness for health, it becomes a great duty of municiple rulers to afford every encouragement in their power to the establishment of public baths for the middle and working classes.
To extend and protect all existing facilities for washing clothes, as well as for private supplies of water.
Baths should niether be very cold nor very warm, but in an agreeable medium.
They should never be taken within three hours of a meal.
Nature may be said to make a strong pleading for their more general use, in the remarkably pleasing feeling which is experienced in the skin after ablution.
Well I hope that is some help to you guys in New York.
If its not I will look in my shed for some carbolic soap and post it in the first post.