The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-12-02
PEOPLE DID NOT BATTLE
WHEN THE BENEFlcENT EFFECTS
OF WATER WAS UNKNOWN.

OF WATER WAS UNKNOWN.
Customs Of Royal Personages That Are
Repulsive to the Modern idea of Clean.
Iness-The Lack of Bathing Habits
Among the French and English.
Until about the year 1850 all the BARRIERS
In France and most other countries oi
Europe practiced the art of surgery. In
dark and dirty chops they shaved and bled
cut hair and applied cupping glasses
| opened tunors and performed surgical
| operations still mere difficult and danger
eus. They were despised as laborers, as
every one was despised who made practi
cal application of his knowledge in tbs
! form of a trade regularly followed. AS q
class they were much liked by the common
f! people, who applied to them for all ordi-
nary medical advice, but as society became
more refined, and consequently more ex-
acting in respect to nea1ness, it became
necessary to separate the care of the hair
and beard from the treatment of diseases,
not only because the association of the two
professions was often repugnant in itself,
but there was great danger of the trans
mission of diseases.
Louis XIII first ordered the separation
of the two professions, directing that the
BARRIERS should confne themselves to the
hair and beard and operations incidental
thereto, but the shavers and hair cut
tiers appealing to parliament, the matter
dragged on for nearly forty years, and was
not definitely decided until the issue of an
edict by Louis XIV in 1873. AS French
writer remarks, this was none too soon, it
being absolutely necessary that there
should be trade whose business it should
! be to care for the general neatness of the
public.
At this epoch the Parisians, and much
more the Inhabitants of the other cities of
| France, had almost lost the habit of
! cleansing the face and hands with water,
80 say nothing of other parts of the body.
BATHING IN PARIS.
In the Dark Ages it had not been quite
SO bad, there remaining in Gaul something
| of the Roman custom of bathing, which
gradually disappeared, owing to the oppo-
sition of the monks and the clergy. An
ecclesiastical work published in 1760 de-
clares that the use of the bath is only to be
regarded as a necessity. never as a luxury.
So filthy were the monks of the Fifteenth
century that they put to flight the beggars
at their gates if the wind happened to blow
| from the direction of the monastery Nuns
of the same epoch and later were not better
provided for, as we learn from the expert
ence of noble lady who, being a tempo
rary inmate of a convent, and having de-
manded a foot bath, was refused by the
superior, the luxury being unheard of
within those walls. In default of other
appliances she made use of an old trunk,
with no other result than to produce gen.
eral inundation of the sacred edifice.
In 1892 there were twenty-six public
baths in Paris, then a small city. They
were arranged for steam or hot water, a
person being able to take one or both kinds
as he desired. They were expensive for the
period, a complete bath costing four francs,
which restricted their use to persons in
easy circumstances. They were not opened
till daylight, the streets not being safe be-
fore that hour. To prevent promiscuity it
was ordered that the men should go in the
morning and the women in the evening;
but the rule does not seem to have been
well observed, since, In the course of time,
they acquired bad reputation and fell
into disuse When they were heated in
the morning the fact was announced after
the manner of the period-by criers who
made the round of the city. Bathtpbs
were common in private houses at the
same epoch, made usually in the form of a
half hogshead, the use of metals for the
purpose being unknown.
WHEN BATHING STOPPED
Wash basins were also familiar objects
in the palaces of kings and in the castles
of the nobility. Charles V of France had
twenty-fOur of the latter, all solid gold, be-
sides others of silver. AS among the Ro-
mans, it was customary to bathe before
meals, and to offer the luxury of bath
to ones guest, who passed directly from
the bathroom into the banquet hall. Vari-
Gus instances are related of baths magnif-
Gently arranged offered to kings of France
when subjects happened to entertain them,
to Louis NJ among others, this king in
Guiding an affectation Of neatness in his
brief list of virtues. There were bathtubs
at the BARRIERS shops, used indiscriminate-
ly, as it would appear, by the well and sick
"a circumstance that helped to render
neatness unpopular. and keep the people
from visiting them.
Therefore, the public baths being discon-
tinued for want Of patronage and those at
the BARRIERS shops feared for sanitary rea-
sons, the practice of bathing, common to
certain class in the Dark and the early part
Of the Middle Ages, disappeared. Having
ceased to bathe the person, the hands and
face became equally neglected, the appli-
cation of water once a week being consid-
cred sufficient among the nobility, ard
once a month, or not at all among the
burgesses and the common people.
The habit of bathing was less common
in England in the time of Queen Elizabeth
than in France, whence it appears at this
epoch to have almost disappeared. The
virgin queen insisted that the gentlemen
and ladies of her court should be magnif-
Gently dressed, but their fine apparel often
covered persons that were repulsive.
ROYAL CRITICISMS.
Bath tubs were not common in the cas-
ties of the nobility. and they would not
have been much used If they had been,
This disregard of neatness could no:,
nevertheless he carried too far, as Is
proved By the remark made by the queen
regarding the order Of his boots 10 one Of
her courtlers who had come into her pres
ence too hastily after a long journey.
Henry ". who was Elizabeth's contempo-
rary, was as careless OF his extremities as
Lady Mary, n q = Protestant D'Aubigny
is 70 be believed. bat II this testimony IS
not sufficient we have that Of another
writer OF the epoch. who alleges that the
king was once told by a lady Of his court
that ''he smelt like dead horse"
The generations that succeeded did not
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