Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/71

Rh least once every day. Bathing after a meal is injurious. A cold bath is a preventive of blood-diseases, while a hot one has an alterative effect. The daily use of an emblic myrobalan bath preserves the black colour of the hair and ensures life for a hundred years. Too hot a bath is injurious to the eyes. To bring the water for ablutions to the required temperature, it is directed that hot water should be added to cold, but that cold water should never be added to hot water. An old physician named Harishchandra says : "O men, a warm bath, fresh milk, a young damsel, and moderate use of fatty articles of food, are conducive to your health." Persons suffering from ague, cold, diarrhoea, dyspepsia, ear affections, or eye diseases, should abstain from bathing. When the bath is over, the body is to be carefully rubbed dry with a towel and properly dressed.

It may be noted by the way that the Hindoos, as a rule, never bathe in a nude state either at home or in public. There is a religious interdiction against exposure of the person (Manu, vi. 45). In cold weather saffron, sandal, and black aloes are applied to the body ; in summer, a paste of sandal, camphor, and Andropogon muricatus is