The skin and its troubles.

Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The skin and its troubles. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/106 (page 7)
    institutions are calculated to carry cleanliness into the humble abode of the labouring classes; they do infinitely more than this; they pour forth a stream of health, of happiness, of thoughtfulness ; they elevate the moral position of those by whom they are used, and the number- less benefits which they confer are not only enjoyed by those who receive, but are reflected upwards and around upon society at large.” If the non-medical reader wants to find facts detailed as to the well-known degrading influences of want of personal cleanliness on the moral nature, and the intimate connexion existing between a clean skin, a clean home, and morality, let him turn to Mr. Chadwick’s Report on “ The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain, in 1842.” There he will also gather how much still remains to be done, notwithstanding the great advances made since that date, in bringing the means of cleanliness to every home, by developing the erection of baths of all kinds and wash- houses more completely, by bringing water in abundance to every door, and by seeing that every man, whatever his condition in life, has a home that can be kept clean if he will. For although a general steady improvement has been effected amongst all classes of the population in the filthy habits and dwellings of the middle ages, the more rapid advance of the last thirty years has not affected the very poor equally with the middle classes. Mr. Chad-