The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-01-12
DANGERS Of The BATH.
Bathing Bad For the Body. De-
clares Chicago Physician.
MAKES THE SKIN AsEwER, he SAYS
DR.. John Dill Robertson Claims Oath
ing Produces Many Ills Of Mankind.
He Takes One Dip Every Two Years
and Considers 1t EnOugh-New York
Physicians Amused DR.. shrndy's
story About q ScOtchman.

~ ~ - ~ =
Physicians Amused = Dr.. shrady's
story About . scotchmnn.
Dr.. John DIN Robertson, secretary Of
the American School Of Medicine and
Surgery, has declared that to battle
once every two years is sufficient and
that bathing Is responsible for the
many ills of mankind. He bathes once
every two years and considers that he
keeps himself we'll cleansed.
DR.. Robertson presented his views
at the annual meeting Of the Chicago
Eclectic and Surgical society in Chi
cago the other night. and the members
Of the society listened to them with
amused interest.
when people leave off bathing there
will be little or nothing for the doctors
to do" said DIR. Robertson. "Pneumo-
mia. colds and a hundred other ills re-
the body.
ITO battle is to be dirty, for you
thereby make a sewer of the skin.
Blood, attracted by the skin, gives up
products that should be left to seek a
natural outlet and soils the skin"
DR.. Robertson asserted that the the
DRY that the closing of pores of the
skin would result in death is false. He
said that all p~hysiologies which made
such an assertion were wrong. The
habit of taking 'tdry" baths was also
denounced. The rubbing Of a rough
towel over the skin, according to DR..
Robertson, removed the natural scales
OF the skin, or the false skim" This,
he said, conduced to the growth of
bacteria on the skin.
DR.. Robertson concluded with a
touching incident of a poor Eskimo
brought from Greenland to Boston who
had never been Ill in his life. He re-
ceived a bath, contracted pneumonia
and died in two days.
DR.. John Dill Robertson's views on
bathing amused New York physicians
when they heard of his address.
at reminds me of a Scotchman 1
knew" said DR.. George r. Shrady,
<'who never had but two baths in his
life. He fell into the Clyde when he
was a boy and was nearly drowned and
the first day he vas in New York he
walked into the East river and had to
be f1shed out. He lived to be ninety
years old. To his dying day he was SO
afraid of water that nothing could in
duce him to let it touch his skin. He
had some reaso for being afraid Of
water. Perhaps our friend in Chicago
has some mysterious reason on his own
account which he has not thought it
worth while to disclose.
$50 far as my friend the Scotchman
is concerned, l presume he would have
lived to be more than a hundred years
old If he had not had his strange preju-
dice against water. This remarkable
outburst from Chicago is really too alb
surd to discuss seriously"
DR.. Simon Baruch, an authority on
hydrotherapeutics, laughed heartily
when he was told of DR.. Robertson's
declaration.
"Of course it Is sc absurd that you
can't expect me to take it up and dis
cuss in any detail the various state
ments this professor Makes" he said.
"They do strange things in Chicago,
but DR.. Robertson is now entitled to go
to the head of the class"