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PRINCIPLES OF HYGIENE
[Chap. V.

an opening medicine, or who are in an intoxicated state. Walking a hundred paces after dinner promotes life, while remaining sitting brings on idleness. Running after taking one's meal is tantamount to running after death. It must there- fore be avoided. After a brief lounge, the best thing to do is to lie down on the left side for a while, as this position favours digestion. At this time the Hindoos generally undergo the process of shampooing — which is but another name for massage, — flexion, extension, rotation, pronation, supination, adduction, abduction and circumduction of the various parts of the body, as well as racking the joints and employing gentle blows and friction, forming part of the manipulation. This purifies the flesh, blood, and skin, exhilarates the mind, brings on sleep, cures diseased phlegm, wind and fat, diminishes fatigue, and increases internal heat. The practice is peculiar to Hindoos, and is referred to in their ancient works. Shampooing in one form or another has been practised from immemorial ages by the Chinese, the Greeks, and the Romans, who, according to some Western authorities, seem to have obtained its knowledge from the Hindoos. It is of various kinds, and the barber caste in India