This certainly shows the great importance of the skin as an organ of elimination and the necessity of keeping it in the best possible condition.  It explains why an atrophied skin has so much to do with the causation of disease and why in the treatment of both acute and chronic ailments air and cold water produce such wonderful results.

The favorite method of diagnosis employed by Father Kneipp, the great water cure apostle, was to examine the skin of his patients.  If the “jacket,” as he called it, was in fairly good condition, he predicted a speedy recovery.  If he found the “jacket” shriveled and dry, weakened and atrophied, he shook his head and informed the patient that it would take much time and patience to restore him to health.  He, as well as other pioneers of the Nature Cure movement, realized that elimination is the keynote in the treatment of acute and chronic diseases.

When Air Baths Should Be Taken

On awakening in the morning and several times during the day, if circumstances permit, expose your nude body to the invigorating influence of the open air and the sunlight.

During the hot season of the year and in tropical countries the best time for taking air and sun baths is the early morning and the late afternoon.

Persons suffering from insomnia or nervousness in any form are in nearly every case greatly benefited by a short air bath taken just before retiring, either preceding or following the evening sitz bath, as may be most convenient.

Where Air Baths Should Be Taken

If at all possible, air baths should be taken out of doors.  Every house should have facilities for air and sun baths, that is, an enclosure where the nude body can be exposed to the open air and the sunlight.

If the air bath out of doors is impracticable, it may be taken in front of an open window.  But indoor air, even in a well-ventilated room, is more or less stagnant and vitiated, and at best only a poor substitute for the open air.

It is the breezy, moving outdoor air, permeated with sunlight and rich in oxygen and ozone, that generates the electric and magnetic currents which are so stimulating and vitalizing to everything that draws the breath of life.

This is being realized more and more, and air-bath facilities will in the near future be considered as indispensable in the modern, up-to-date house as is now the bathroom.

We predict that before many years the roofs of apartment houses will be utilized for this purpose and people will wonder how they ever got along without the air bath.

Our sanitarium has two large enclosures on its roof, open above and surrounded on all sides by wooden lattice work, which allows the air to circulate freely, but excludes observation from neighboring roofs and windows and the streets below.  One compartment is for men and one for women, each provided with gymnastic apparatus and a separate spray room.