HANDS

Dirty and coarse hands are no le the marks of slothfulne and low breeding, than clean and delicate hands are those of cleanline and gentility. To promote the softne and whitene of the skin, mild emollient soaps, or those abounding in oil, should alone be used, by which means CHAPS AND CHILBLAINS will generally be avoided. The coarse, strong kinds of soap, or those abounding in alkali, should for a like reason be rejected, as they tend to render the skin rough, dry, and brittle. The immersion of the hands in alkaline lyes, or strongly acidulated water, has a like effect. When the hands are very dirty, a little good soft soap may be used with warm water, which will rapidly remove oily and greasy matter. Fruit and ink stains may be taken out by immersing the hands in water slightly acidulated with oxalic acid or a few drops of oil of vitriol, or to which a little pearlash or chloride of lime has been added; observing afterwards to well rinse them in clean water, and not to touch them with soap for some hours, as any alkaline matter will bring back the stains, after their apparent removal by all the above substances, except the last. The use of a little chloride of lime and warm water, or Gowland’s lotion, imparts a delicate whitene to the skin; but the former should be only occasionally used, and should be well washed off with a little clean water to remove its odour. Glycerine employed in the same manner renders the skin soft, white, and supple. The use of a little sand or powdered pumice stone with the soap will generally remove the roughne of the skin frequently induced by exposure to cold. The hands may be preserved dry, for delicate work, by rubbing a little club mo ( LYCOPODIUM ), in fine powder, over them. A small quantity of this substance sprinkled over the surface of a basin of water will permit the hand to be plunged to the bottom of the basin without its becoming wet.