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baths or any adequate means by which the cleansing of the skin
can be effected; it may be considered even more deplorable that,
in many houses in which they have been installed, they are used
for quite other purposes than those for which they are intended,
and are not at all or rarely used for bathing.
"You cannot teach an old dog new tricks, and people who
all their lives have been without the means of cleansing their
bodies and have acquired the habit of a dirty skin, can hardly
be expected to change a life-long custom merely because the
opportunity occurs.
"If people so unfortunately situated are to become cleanly
in person it must be by means of a practical education commencing
in childhood; and for a large number of children nowhere, and
by no means can this be accomplished save at the school. 'I'o
instil in the rising generation the virtue of cleanliness in such a
manner that it becomes a habit would be an accomplishment
greater in its moral and humanising effects than any particular
achievement of our educational system.
" However unpalatable the fact may be it has to be recognised
that a very large number of people, through no fault that can
properly be accredited to them, are dirty in their habits and
persons, and every medical man knows that in this, more than
in any other particular condition, lies the cause of a vast amount
of disease and a hopeless bar to its remedy.
" School shower baths should be supplied with hot and cold
water. They should preferably be in sufficient number to enable
a whole class of either boys or girls to be bathed simultaneously.
Ry this means a whole school may be bathed regularly not less
than once a week without dislocation of school work. It is
estimated that half-an-hour is ample time in which to bath a class,
where sufficient number of shower baths is provided. The bathing
may very properly take the place of physical exercise on the
occasion on which it is given. Soap and towels and the supervision
of the teacher are necessary. It follows that where ample
A