Apoplexy - Victorian Health and Medicine

ABLUTION. The frequent affusion of the surface of the body is not only necessary to cleanliness and comfort, but is also essential to the preservation of health. The explanation of this is, that the pores of the skin act as agents for removing from the body useless and superfluous matter, which is constantly being generated, and which, in the form of minute scales, is deposited upon the outer portion or cuticle of the skin.

If this refuse is suffered to accumulate, and remain, it forms in the process of time a thick hard crust, which obstructs the pores of the skin, and impedes their functions. It is obvious, therefore, that the internal organs of the body, being deprived of the assistance and vital energy rendered by the pores, become by this means enfeebled in their operations, and habitually debilitated and deranged.

To obviate these evil effects, it is necessary that the whole surface of the body should be daily subjected to an ablution of cold water, or, where this may be impracticable, to friction with a damp cloth,

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