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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