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The Toilet and Bath: Remove

To Remove Stains from the Hands.

Substances recommended for removing stains from the hands are lemon juice, the juice of ripe tomatoes, sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol), chloride of lime, oxalic acid, fumes of sulphur, and various compounds of these. The following special directions may be noted: To Use Sulphuric Acid.-Dilute a few drops in 20 times its volume of water, and apply to stains with a brush. Take care this does not touch a cut on the flesh or fall upon fabrics of woolen or cotton, as it will take out their color and eat holes in them.

To Use Oxalic Acid. - Make a weak solution of oxalic acid and water, and apply with a brush or rag. Take care this does not get into any sores and cuts, as it will inflame them. On healthy skin its action is as mild as lemon juice.

Or dampen the stain and hold it over the fumes of an old-fashioned sulphur match, freshly lighted. Or burn a small piece of sulphur out of doors and hold the stain in the fumes.

Care must, of course, be taken not to burn the flesh or inhale the fumes of burning sulphur.

The above are specially useful for fruit stains.

To Remove Stubborn Stains. - Mix oxalic acid and cream of tartar in equal proportions, and keep the mixture in an old paper box among toilet articles. This box should be marked "Poison," and kept out of the reach of children. Wet the stain with warm water and sprinkle with this preparation, rubbing until the stain disappears. Then wash the hands with soap and rinse well. This will remove the most stubborn ink and dye stains.

To Soften the Hands. Keep on the toilet stand near the soap a dish of oatmeal, and rub it freely on the hands after washing. This will cleanse and soften the skin.

Or use corn meal in the same manner.

Or keep at hand a quantity of clean white sand. The artificial sort, made by crushing quartz or flint stone and sold for filters, is preferable to sea sand or ordinary sand, since it has sharper edges. Mix a handful of sand with hot soapsuds. and wash and rub the hands with this mixture for several minutes.

The sand may be cleansed by pouring fresh water over it and draining through a filter. It can be used again and again. This method softens and removes the calluses caused by housework. The hands may afterwards be rubbed with oatmeal or corn meal, as above, and treated with cold cream or some other simple lotion.

Or a pair of white kid gloves may be turned inside out and brushed over with cold cream or any melted mixture of wax, oil, lard, or other unguent. These gloves may then be drawn on the hands and worn at night.

Or the hands may be rubbed at night with cold cream, mutton tallow, or honey, and a large pair of gloves drawn on. In the morning the hands should be thoroughly washed with some good toilet soap, and rubbed with oatmeal or corn meal and any simple lotion. The following mixtures are recommended to use with gloves at night to soften and whiten the hands:

Put in a quart glass fruit jar pound of grated or shaved castile soap. Pour over this pint of alcohol, and let stand in a warm place, shaking frequently until the soap is dissolved. Add 1 ounce of glycerin and oil of almonds, perfume with a few drops of any essential oil, and seal tightly.

Or put pound of grated castile or other hard white soap in a double boiler; pour over it 1 gill of olive oil, and dissolve with gentle heat.

Add 14 ounces of mutton tallow, mix thoroughly, remove from the fire, and add 2 fluid ounces of alcohol and a few drops of any essential oil as perfume.

Or shave together in a flat glass dish or on a marble slab 1 ounce of spermaceti, 1 ounce of white wax, and 1 ounce of gum camphor. Mix with olive oil to a stiff paste.

THE TOILET AND BATH Or mix 1 ounce of glycerin and ounce of ammonia with ounce of rose water.

Chapped Hands. - Substances recommended for chapped hands may be distinguished as follows: solid unguents, such as spermaceti and other forms of wax, lard, unsalted butter, mutton suet, tallow, and the like; liquid unguents, such as glycerin, yolk of egg, honey, almond oil, linseed oil, and olive oil; various substances which have specific soothing properties, as borax, bitter almonds, bran (decoction of), balsam of fir, camphor, sal soda, carbolic acid, quince seed, raisins, oatmeal; various flavoring and coloring extracts and perfumes.

The objects sought in using these substances are as follows:

The solid and liquid unguents are employed to hold the specific remedial agent in suspension, and to give consistency to the mass so as to make it easier to apply them; also to prevent their speedy evaporation. The various remedial agents are selected according to their several properties and the results desired. These vary in their effects with different individuals and also according to the condition of the skin. A little experience will indicate which to employ under given conditions. Coloring extracts and perfume may, of course, be used according to taste. With these thoughts in mind it is an easy matter to prepare a stock of emollients suited to one's ideas and experience, based upon a solid unguent if a paste or salve is desired, or upon a liquid unguent if a lotion is preferred, and containing such remedial agents, coloring matter, etc., as are desired.

Glycerin for the Hands. -Glycerin may be used pure or scented with any essential oil. Rub on the hands at night with the same motion as when washing them, either before or after the hands have been chapped, or apply immediately after they have been chilled by exposure. Soft chamois-skin gloves worn at night will prevent this and other preparations from making grease spots on bed linen.

To soften and whiten the hands, use a mixture of two thirds glycerin and one third rose water.

Or, to prepare glycerin paste for toilet use, put 1 ounce of any good transparent toilet soap in 4 ounces of soft water or rose water, and add 5 ounces of glycerin. Dissolve all with gentle heat, stir in 20 ounces of additional glycerin, pour into a glass fruit jar, and when nearly cold perfume with a few drops of any essential oil. Or simmer with gentle heat in a double boiler 1 ounce of glycerin, 2 ounces of olive oil, and 2 drams of spermaceti. Apply to the hands night and morning.

Or mix 3 ounces of glycerin, 1 yolk of egg, and 30 grains of carbolic acid, and beat up to an emulsion with an egg beater. Rub into the skin several times daily.