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The care of our persons is not only a duty, but a pleasure : it is one equally enforced by the dictates of prudence,
the laws of decency, and the commands of God. These are, however, especially in the case of the poorer
classes of the community, too often disregarded. The results of this neglect soon show themselves,
not only in a disregard of moral and religious duties (since there is a certain and intimate connexion
between the inward purity of the mind and the outward purity of the person), but in the utter neglect
of ill comfort, and the certain origin of disease. The insensible perspiration, which is constantly escaping
from the skin of all healthy persons, is essential to their health. When this is checked,
many diseases arise. The cleanliness of the skin, therefore, is of the highest importance
to health; but this wholesome state of the skin is deranged as soon as its pores are closed
up by dirt. This secretion, it is observed by an eminent physician,* by being allowed to
remain on the skin itself, or on the clothes which cover it, becomes not only offensive,
but highly irritating, and productive of a great variety of loathsome and distressing
eruptions. I do not hesitate to declare, from repeated and careful observation, that
the habits of too many of the poor, promote and foster various errors of negligence
and omission, which not only render poverty more distressing and degrading, but
which also tend to perpetuate it, ,and at the same time render it more exposed to
the attacks and ravages of disease. The remedy for these evils consists in the more
regular application of cold -or, still better, warm - water to the surface of the body.
This cheap and universal fluid is within the reach of all persons; and there is no
doubt that, by its regular and constant application, the best results to the true pleasures
of life are certain to arise. The body is rendered more healthy, the spirits more elastic,
the whole frame of our minds improved. and if, when we are thus applying water to the
surface of our bodies, the application is further periodically extended to the floors and
walls of our rooms, still greater advantages always arise in still more rapidly promoting
these pleasures, especially if, in the periodical application of the water to the walls and
ceilings of our rooms, we took the pains to add to it a portion of lime or whitening; for by
this means the general cleanliness of our persons and clothes is materially promoted,
diseases still more effectually banished, and, from the whiteness thus imparted to our
rooms, more light is given to our dwellings. The advantages of light I shall, in the
course of this little work, endeavour to show, add to the health of the body, and,
consequently, to the true enjoyment of life.
* Dr. T. Hodgkin on Health, p. 25. from Johnson's Rural Reader : Cuthbert Johnson ( pub. Joseph Rogerson dated1854 )
Cleanliness was, of course, next to godliness in the Victorian middle class view of the world, but the battle against dirt and grime in working class homes must often have been a losing one, if it was fought at all. Consumption of soap certainly increased, especially after the abolition of the excise duty in 1853. But the major revolution came with Lever's introduction of branded soap and national advertising in the 1880s. Until then, soap had been manufactured and marketed locally, and often simply cut from a huge slab by the shopkeeper. But from the 1880s massive sums were spent in advertising the superior qualities of products like Hudson's Extract of Soap and Watson's Matchless Cleaner. Lever set out particularly to persuade the working classes to use more soap. Other cleaning agents- bleaches, grate blacking, furniture polishes and so on- became increasingly important items of family expenditure as more families had more things to clean. Advertisers showed a good deal of ingenuity in proclaiming the virtues of their particular products. By the end of the period, with the development of gas, electricity and enclosed stoves, the battle against dirt was somewhat easier than it had been earlier. Cocoa and Corsets: Michael Jubbs (pub. HMSO 1984)
Also see :- The pig in the bath New materialisms and cultural studies Michelle Henning
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