On the applications of science to human health and well-being. Being a lecture, introductory to a course, 'on the application of physics to common life', delivered to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, in June, 1847 / [Alexander Bain].

  • Bain, Alexander, 1818-1903
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the applications of science to human health and well-being. Being a lecture, introductory to a course, 'on the application of physics to common life', delivered to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, in June, 1847 / [Alexander Bain]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    served for our own times to develope the vast powers and proper¬ ties of the cold application. But besides the cleansing of the body and the administering of heat and cold, there is a third action of the bath, resulting from the rubbing, scraping, and shampooing of the skin, especially in the parts where there is any depth of flesh. We by no means appreciate the effect of hard friction by the use of towels, brushes, or horse-hair, when we speak of its agency on the skin alone : the great and essential influence is on the whole fleshy mass down to the bone itself. There is a good deal of complicacy in this action, but some points about it seem very plain. In the first place, all rubbing and pinching has a tendency to squeeze the muscular mass very hard, and, as it were, to wring the blood out of it. But since the blood can move only one way, that is, out of the arteries through the small tubes into the veins, all such pressure must inevitably quicken the local circulation; in other words, it will increase the amount of pure blood brought to the parts, and hasten the departure of the impure blood, which is essentially a vitalizing and healthy action. But I am disposed to think also, that the squeezing of the muscles is a stimulus to their own proper action, or causes them to contract and put forth some portion of their energy; in fact, giving them exercise at the same time that they receive an increased supply of blood. Just as the circulation is quickened independently of the force of the heart at the centre, so the muscles are put in action apart from the ordinary nervous stimulus. Now this may be said to be an important variety of exercise ; it is a kind of action that costs the nervous system almost nothing. It has, therefore, a great advantage over the usual forms of muscular exercise, such as walking, and may often be substituted for these; or at all events, it may be alternated with the other kinds, and have a very beneficial effect. A fourth ingredient in the ancient bathing process was the oiling of the body; which is fallen into disuse with us, and needs not be resumed. It served partly to protect the skin from the high tem¬ perature of some of the bathing rooms and from the rays of a scorching sun, (for which reason probably it was a practice of the naked wrestlers), and partly to give a glossy hue to the body; it was also a means of perfuming the person. I know nothing really desirable for us in the oiling operation, that cannot be far better accomplished by the modern article of soap, whose action on the skin is never injurious; and which, therefore, should never be stinted in any cleansing or bathing application. Baths then ought to combine in a high degree of efficiency, the three properties of cleansing, acting on the heating system of the body, and invigorating the muscles by rubbing and pressure. As it is beyond my province to allude to the treatment of positive disease by bathing or any other agency, I may lay it down as a maxim that, in general, the cold bath is to be preferred to the hot.