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Hints On Bathing


There has been a great deal written about bathing. The surface of the

skin is punctured with millions of little holes called pores. The duty

of these pores is to carry the waste matter off. For instance,

perspiration. Now, if these pores are stopped up they are of no use, and

the body has to find some other way to get rid of its impurities. Then

the liver has more than it can do. Then we take a liver pill when we

ought
to clean out the pores instead. The housewife is very particular

to keep her sieves in good order; after she has strained a substance

through them they are washed out carefully with water, because water is

the best thing known. That is the reason water is used to bathe in. But

the skin is a little different from a sieve, because it is willing to

help along the process itself. All it needs is a little encouragement

and it will accomplish wonders. What the skin wants is rubbing. If you

should quietly sit down in a tub of water and as quietly get up and dry

off without rubbing, your skin wouldn't be much benefited. The water

would make it a little soft, especially if it was warm. But rubbing is

the great thing. Stand where the sunlight strikes a part of your body,

then take a dry brush and rub it, and you will notice that countless

little flakes of cuticle fly off. Every time one of these flakes is

removed from the skin your body breathes a sigh of relief. An eminent

German authority contends that too much bathing is a bad thing. There is

much truth in this. Soap and water are good things to soften up the

skin, but rubbing is what the skin wants. Every morning or every

evening, or when it is most convenient, wash the body all over with

water and a little ammonia, or anything which tends to make the water

soft; then rub dry with a towel, and after that go over the body from

top to toe with a dry brush. Try this for two or three weeks, and your

skin will be like velvet.



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