Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/223

 reservoir of all the surface water in the neighbourhood, a perfect infusion of every thing offensive and filthy, and literally alive with animalcules here too we shall see the same scene of washing clothes and scrubbing bodies, and other acts of uncleanliness; yet from this same pool they draw their supply of water, and no wonder that they often become sick from using it.

15. BATHING. The universal practice of bathing has, I have no doubt, a bad effect upon the health of the people. In a country such as India where so much of the person is exposed to the accumulation of dust and perspiration, it was no doubt a wise and provident law that instituted ablution as a religious rite, for no other plan so effectual could have been devised to insure cleanliness and a healthy state of skin. But I fear bathing is often abused, that it is considered in the light of an ordinance of their religion, and is practiced without due regard to the season of the year, the state of the weather, or the condition of the body as to health and disease. There are numerous cold, raw, rainy days even in the summer season, and bleak withering days in winter, when people even in good health would be much better in their beds at home than thus doing penance on the banks of a river; and a person labouring under diarrhœa, dysentery, or internal