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The Toilet and Bath: Don't

Dont's for Bathers. - Don't take any kind of a bath within two hours after eating a hearty meal.

Don't neglect a daily bath of some kind. Don't neglect the daily sun and air bath.

Don't take a cold bath when fatigued; but take a bath in water as hot as can be borne. It will help to rest you.

Don't strip for a bath when the body is cooling after perspiration, but step into a warm bath while the body is heated.

Don't stay too long in the water.

Get out before you begin to feel chilly.

Don't stand around on the bank or in boats after bathing until you get a chill.

Don't bathe early in the morning on an empty stomach unless you are vigorous and strong enough to stand it. The best time for you may be two or three hours after breakfast.

Don't neglect the weekly hot-water bath, followed by a change of clothing to keep the body clean and healthy.

Don't believe that you can get rid of wrinkles by filling them in with powder. Just before going to bed bathe your face in warm, then in cold water. And quit worrying. It will save you many a wrinkle.

Temperature of the Bath. - The temperature of the bath for cleanliness should be about 95° F. A cold shower bath or douche to follow the warm bath should be about 77° F.

A cool bath should be about 77° F., Homemade Shower Bath." but the temperature at the start may be lowered for those who are accustomed to it.

The water for a person in ordinary health should be drawn about as hot as is agreeable; but care should be taken not to remain too long in a THE TOILET AND BATH hot bath. This applies especially to persons who are thin-blooded, nervous, or neuralgic. After the body has been thoroughly cleansed, it is a good idea to gradually introduce cold water into the tub until a perceptible chill is felt.

If there is running water in the bathroom, a shower bath may be had by obtaining the detachable rubber tubes and fixtures used for this purpose, which come very cheap. The shower bath is the best means of cooling the body after a hot bath.

When this is done, or after a cold bath, a reaction should be brought about by a vigorous rubbing with a Turkish towel until the body is in a warm glow. This practice would almost certainly prevent all colds and many fevers, with their fatal consequences.

KINDS OF BATHS Outdoor Bathing. - This form of bathing, if moderately indulged in, is an excellent exercise for bodily development. In warm climates it may be practiced throughout the year; but in northern latitudes fresh-water bathing should not be indulged in except in summer. There are some fanatics who recommend outdoor bathing throughout the year, and now and then a person is strong enough to endure such exposure. But to recommend it to everybody is foolish, if not criminal. Particular care should be taken in outdoor bathing that the body does not suffer a chill. A reaction should be produced by rubbing briskly with a dry towel.

Sea Bath.-A trip to the seashore for the purpose of salt-water bathing is very beneficial to persons in a run-down condition, with the excep- Vion of those suffering from nervous diseases, heart diseases, or consumption. Salt-water bathing is especially good for children who have scrofula. and for persons who have catarrh.

Salt water and salt air are stimulating and invigorating. The shock caused by the surf tends to produce a healthful fatigue which strengthens the bodily functions and promotes hunger and appetite. Bathers in salt water, especially invalids, should leave the water before they are chilled or overtired, dry the body thoroughly, and follow the bath by some mild exercise, as walking.

Air Bath. After the bath all persons, especially children, should expose the body to the air for a considerable length of time. Benjamin Franklin says that every morning at daybreak he was accustomed to get out of bed, and pass more or less than an hour, according to the season, in writing or reading in his chamber without any clothes; and he adds that this custom was agreeable rather than otherwise. There is no doubt that light, especially direct sunlight, upon the skin is one of the most valuable agents for the preservation of health. A complete change of clothing should be made after the bath. The contact of clothing with the skin greatly promotes its secretions, and this is very necessary to health.

Flannel generates heat-hence opens the pores of the skin and allows the secretions to flow. It is therefore the proper clothing next the body.

If the effete matter thrown off by the skin in perspiration is retained by the clothing, the gravest consequences to health may result in addition to the discomforts of uncleanliness. Colds, fevers, and vermin of all sorts are merely human ignorance, laziness, and uncleanliness out on exhibition.

Cold Sponge Bath. - Many persons make a practice of taking a cold sponge bath every morning, followed by vigorous rubbing with a coarse towel or flesh brush. The best method of doing this is to fill a washbowl or basin with water and let it stand in the room over night, so as to acquire the same temperature as the air in the room. Rub with the bare hands rather than with a cloth or sponge, wetting only a small portion of the body at a time and rubbing that portion until a reaction is experienced. Washing the face and head, next the arms, the back, the lower portion of the chest, and the lower limbs, in the order mentioned, is a good rule for cold-water bathing.

After the rub-down with a coarse towel, the skin should be pink, all in a tingle, and the whole surface of the body should be in a warm glow.

Some persons cannot endure this regimen, although it is highly beneficial to others. A few days or weeks of experience will test its expediency.

This is worth trying, because it often results in a life habit which is exceedingly beneficial. Those who are less robust may obtain some of the benefits of the cold sponge bath by a vigorous rubbing with a towel or flesh brush each morning when the bath is not taken. When bathing in winter, the shock from cold water is lessened by standing a minute in the cold air after removing the clothing and before applying the water.

Footbath. - This bath may be taken for cleansing purposes or for the purpose of drawing the blood from other parts of the body. Congestion of blood in the head may be relieved by a footbath in cold water.

If convenient, the patient may walk for a few minutes in a brook or stream reaching about to the ankles.

This may be followed by a brisk rubbing and some exercise, as walking. Or the patient may first put his feet in hot water for from three to five minutes and then plunge them for half a minute into cold water. Afterwards the feet should be rubbed dry and the person should take exercise by walking.

Salt-water Bath. - Add 4 or 5 pounds of sea salt, which can be purchased of any druggist, to a full bath at the temperature of 65° F. The patient should remain in this bath from 10 to 20 minutes, and afterwards should rest for half an hour in a recumbent position. Such baths are useful in general debility produced by wasting diseases, as scrofula and other diseases of the skin, anæmia, etc. Sea salt should not be used for children. It does not penetrate the skin, but acts as a stimulant. Mustard Bath. - The addition of 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls of powdered mustard to a hot footbath in cases of chill is a preventive against taking cold, and is also useful in the early stages of colds to induce perspiration. The feet should be taken out of this bath as soon as the skin reddens and begins to smart. The parts bathed should be carefully cleansed, rinsed, and wiped dry. Great care should be exercised in giving mustard baths to children, else the skin may become badly blistered.

The Bran Bath. - Make a decoction of wheat bran by boiling 4 or 5 pounds of wheat bran in a linen bag.

The juice extracted, and also the bran itself, should be put into the water. This is for a full bath at a temperature of about 90° F. This bath is of service in all skin affections accompanied by itching. Cabinet Baths.-A number of special cabinets are devised for giving different kinds of baths for medicinal purposes. Purchasing one of these is usually not necessary unless there are one or more invalids in the family. In such cases the selection of a suitable cabinet should be made only upon the advice of the family physician. The following forms of bathing require the use of cabinets: Stool Bath. - This is likewise known as the Russian bath. It consists in filling a room with steam at a temperature under low pressure of about 120° F. Stool baths are very little used, but the same effect is produced by a cabinet which has an opening for the head so that the patient is not obliged to breathe the steam. A steam bath for the face and head may be obtained by holding the face over a receptacle full of boiling water, and throwing a cloth or oilcloth over the head and shoulders so as to partly prevent the escape of the steam.

The Hot-air Bath.-In the Turk- THE TOILET AND BATH ish bath, several connecting rooms are heated to different degrees of temperature, and the patient passes slowly from the coolest to the warmest room for the purpose of inducing perspiration. He is then given a cold shower or douche, rubbed dry, wrapped in blankets and permitted to rest. These baths are very enervating and should only be taken by persons of strong constitution. The hot-air bath, however, for the purpose of inducing perspiration, is superior to the steam bath. It should be so taken that the person's head will be outside of the cabinet and he will not be obliged to breathe the hot air. A temperature of 120° to 130° F. is sufficient. Great care should be taken that the air does not become superheated, as danger is likely to ensue from a temperature exceeding 140° F. The patient should not remain in the hot-air bath more than fifteen or twenty minutes, and should then be given a cool bath and rubbed down. If additional perspiration is desired, he should be wrapped in blankets.

Steam baths and hot-air baths should ordinarily be taken only by and with the advice of the family physician.

THE TOILET The Complexion. - The object of attention to the complexion should be to preserve the skin in its normal condition of health, and to remove all abnormal effects and conditions.

Among these may be mentioned excessive dryness or evaporation, by exposure to dry and biting winds, of the water normally contained in the skin; the opposite extreme of excessive perspiration; and the obstruction of the pores by dirt or grime or other causes, which is the parent of various eruptions and other skin diseases.

These subjects are taken up in turn in the following pages, and the principal standard remedies are cited. Many persons regard attention to these matters as evidence of vanity and light-headedness, and others go to the opposite extreme and give much more time and thought to the niceties of the toilet than is either wise or necessary. Doubtless the wise and sane course lies between these two extremes. The normal condition of the skin resulting in a firm, smooth, and soft texture and a clear pink-and-white complexion, not only contributes to personal attractiveness, but also to the sense of comfort, included in the general term "good health."

Women (and men, too) have a natural right to a good complexion.

The contrary is evidence of some improper or diseased condition, and it is perfectly natural and proper to seek and apply suitable remedies.

Beauty Doctors. - On the other hand, we earnestly advise against the patronage of so-called "beauty doctors," many of whom are unquestionably quacks and charlatans, and we urge the use of homemade preparations. Many of the standard preparations widely advertised for sale contain the most injurious mineral drugs, such, for example, as mercury, arsenic, lead, bismuth, etc. These are freely used by many "beauty doctors," and we regret to say that recipes containing them have been published without caution in many books of household recipes which have had a wide circulation. All such preparations have been carefully excluded from this volume. Approved recipes have been given which will accomplish every desirable object without the possibility of any injurious consequences.

Homemade Toilet Preparations.- Many toilet preparations advertised for sale contain organic substances which deteriorate by decaying, and in this condition poison the skin. Moreover, most proprietary articles are very expensive. We feel safe in assuring the most careful and conservative mothers that the compounding at home and use of any of the preparations herein recommended will be a perfectly safe and innocent employment for their daughters or themselves. Any disposition to do so should, we think, be encouraged. A few vials of essential oils as perfumes, small quantities of almonds and other required ingredients, may be bought at the drug store for less than a single bottle of a proprietary article can be purchased, and all interested will have the satisfaction of knowing that the materials are fresh and of good quality, and that no harmful consequences from their use need be feared.

Country girls should have the best complexions in the world, but this is not always the case. Those who have not been favored by nature in this respect very often envy their city cousins' supposed advantages of easy access to "beauty doctors" and the large department stores and drug stores where toilet preparations of all sorts are for sale. The country girl has, in fact, a pronounced advantage over her city cousin if she has the wit to utilize it. Many of the most effective agents and remedies for the toilet are to be had in every farmhouse, and it is safe to say that the country girl can stock her dressing table with a full line of toilet preparations if she so desires, of better quality than her city cousin can purchase. And she can do so much more cheaply and conveniently.

To Preserve the Complexion. To prevent the excessive evaporation of water normally present in the skin, it is well to rub a small quantity of cold cream over the face before going out in the hot sun or wind.

Just enough should be used to cover the surface without its being noticeable. In hot climates the use of similar preparations to prevent the drying of the skin is practically universal.

A veil is also a desirable protection against bad weather. Chiffon or other material of the finest mesh should be preferred. Frenchwomen of the middle and upper classes never think of going out without a veil.

Englishwomen and the inhabitants of warm climates generally carry parasols.