The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-02-10
When the Bene6cent Effects of Water
Were Unknown.
DIRT OF THE DARK AGES
Customs OF Royal Personages That Are
Repuisive to the Modern Idea of Clean
Illness The Lack of Bathing Habits
Among the French and English.

".
dark and dirty shops they shaved and bled
cut hair and applied cupping glasses,
opened tumors and performed surgical
operations still more difficult and danger
ous. They were despised rs laborcrs. as
every one was despscd who made a practi.
cal application of his knowledge in the
form of trade regularly followed. As
class they were much liked by the common
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 neatness, il 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 confine themselves to the
hair and beard and operations incidental
thereto, but the shavers and hair cut
ters 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 1913. As French
writer remarks, this was none too soon, il
being absolutely necessary that there
should be a trade whose business il should
be 20 care for the general neatness of the
public.
At this epoch the Parsians, and much
more the Inhabitants 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.
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 1850 de.
clares that the use of the bath is only to be
regarded as necessity. never as luxury.
So filthy were the monks of the Fifteenth
century that they put to flight the beggars
at their gates # 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 tempo
rary inmate of convent, and having de-
manded 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 inuniation of the sacred edifce.
In 1902 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, te streets not being safe be
fore that hour. To prevent promiscuity il
was ordered that the men should 40 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
5he manner Of the period-by criers who
made the round of the city Bathtubs
we're 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
uf 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, il was customary TO bathe before
meals, and to offer the luxury Of a bath
20 ones guest, who passed directly from
the bathroom into the banquet hall. Vari
Gus Instances arc related of baths magnii
Gently arranged offered to kings OF France
when subjects happened to entertain them
TO Louis NJ among others, this king in
cludug an alTectation of neatness in his
brief list of virtues. There were bathtubs
It the BARRIERS shops, used indiscriminate
J, az it would appear, by the well aud sick
"a circumstance that helped TO render
leatness unpopular. and keep the people
from visiting them.
Therefore tde public baths being dscon
.iuuel for want Of patronage and those at
The BARRIERS shops feared for sanitary ren
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 aud
,acc became equally neglected, the appli
cation of water once week being consid-
cred sufficient among the nobility, and
once "A month, or not at all, among the
burgesses and the common people.
The habit of bathing was less common
N England ia the time OF Queen Elizabeth
tnAn IN France, whence IL appears nj TINS
epoch to have almost disappeared. The
virgin queen insisted that the gentlemen
and ladies of her court should he magnif
Gently dressed, but their fine apparel often
covered persons that were repulsiye.
ROYAL CRITICISMS.
Bath tubs were not common in the cas-
iles of the nobility, and they would not
nave been much used II they had been
This disregard OF neatness could no.,
nevertheless, be carried too far, as is
9roycd by the remark made by the queen
regarding the order OF his boots 10 one Of
her courtiers who had come into her pres
pnce too hastily after n long journey.
Henry w, who was Elizabeth's contcmpo-
rary, was rs careless of his extremities as
Lady Mary, If the Protestant D'Aubigny
= 10 be believed: but il this testimony Ia
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
hat "he smeit like dead horse"
The generations that succeeded did not
practice this cardinal virtue much more
efficiently. but outraged neatness revenged