Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-12-05
SELF ABLUTION.
How the Custom of Washing One't
Self Once Fell Into DesuetUde.

How the Custom of Washing Onet
Self Once Fell Into DesuetWde.
Until about the year 1850 all the bar
bers in France and most other countries
Of Europe practiced the art of surgery
In dark and dirty shops they shaved an6
bled, cut hair andapplied cupping glasses
opened tumors, and performed surgical
operations still more difficult and danger.
Gus. They were despised as laborers, as
everyone was despised who made prac
teal application of his knowledge in the
form of trade regularly followed.
As a class they were much liked by the
common people, who applied to them fol
all ordinary medical service, but a:
society became more refined, and con
sequently more exacting in respect tt
neatness, 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 wa:
often repugnant in itself, but there wa!
great danger of the transmission of dis
ease. Louis XIII first ordered the sep
aration of the two professions, directing
that the BARRIERS should confine them
selves to the hair and beard and opera
tons incidental thereto, but the shaver
and haircutters appealing to parliament
the matter dragged on for nearly 40 years
and was not definitely decided until the
issue of an edict by Louis XIV in 1878.
As a French writer remarks. this wal
zone too soon, it being absolutely neces
| sary that there should be a trade whose
| business it should be to care for the gen
| rral neatness of the public. At this epoch
the Parisians, and much more the in
habitants of the other cities of France
| had almost lost the habit of cleansing
| the face and hands with water, to say
nothing of other parts of the body. Ir
the dark ages it had not been quite SC
| bad, there remaining in Gaul something
| of the Roman custom of bathing, which
| gradually disappeared, owing to the OPP
position of the monks and clergy. Ii
1899 there were &c public baths in Paris
then a small city.
They We're arranged for steam or hot
water, a person being able to take one OF
| both kinds as he desired. They were ex.
| pensive for the period, a complete bath
| costing four francs, which restricted
their use to persons in easy circumstances.
| They We're not opened till daylight, the
| streets not being safe before 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 very wei
observed. since in the course of time they
acquired a very bad reputation and fell
| into dSuse.
| When they were heated in the morning
| the fact was announced after the name,
Of the perod-by criers who made the
round of the city. Bathtubs We're com,
mon in private houses at the same epoch
made usually in the form of half hogs
| head the use of metals for the purpose
being unknown. Wash basins were alsc
familiar objects in the palaces of kings
and in the castles of the nobility. Charles
Y of France had 81 of the latter, al
solid gold, besides others of silver.
Various instances are related of baths
magnifcently arranged offered to kings
Of France when subjects happened to en-.
terrain them, to Louis ri among others,
| This king including an atfectation of neat.
ness in his brief list of virtues. There
were bathtubs at the BARRIERS shops, used
jndiscriminately, as it would appear. by
| the we'll and sick, circumstance that
helped to render neatness unpopular, and
keep the people from visiting them.
Therefore, the public baths being dis,
continued Tor want of patronage, and
hose at the BARRIERS shops feared for san.
itary reasons, the practice of bathing
| common to a certain class in the Dark
and the early part of the Middle Ages
disappeared. Having ceased to battle
he person, the hands and face became
equally neglected, the application of wa
;er once a week being considered suffi-
,ient among the nobility, and once a
month, or not at all, among the common
people.
In 1910 a book called The Laws of
jallantry" appeared in Paris, suggesting
among other things that it would be
well to go once in a while to the baths,
and to wash the hands at least once a
day. The face, it is added, should be
washed almost as often. When society
had arrived at such degree of refine
| ment that it seemed desirable to wash
The face almost every day, it began to
see that it was not very sensible thing
| 10 be shaved or have the hair dressed by
one who performed common acts of sur
gerry.
So the BARRIERS duties became trade
| apart and the surgeons duties a nobleI
| profession. For generations after it be,
came a sort of habit to wash the hands
and face, water was rather toler.
ated than loved, and was used sparingly
| Most people confined themselves to the
| use for the morning toilet of perfumed
| alcohol, applied to the face with a cot,
ton ball or sponge. Louis XIV lived
| among an elegance and magnificence
such as no king before him and none
since haG known.
| He bathed often, changed wigs several
times a day, had relays of BARRIERS for
| his wigs, baths, and beard, and yet suf,
| fered from diseases caused by neglecting
some of the most elementary laws OF
neatness, and shared his superb royal
couch with heas and even more disgust.
ing parasites. Throughout the Middle
| Ages and down to date not long pre-.
ceding the French revolution neatness
was supposed to be a virtue appealing
only to the eyes.
If the principal garments and shoes
were reasonably clean, one did moi
trouble himself greatly about what they
might conceal. A manual of politeness
! r,I,li.LaI in tho 18th rpnt,ry sayS oOe