Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/501

 4/7 BEAUTY the surface, as it does with a fine-grained skin. If the skin " feels grimy " without due cause, it shows it is in bad condition and needs medical treatment, not perpetual washing. How to Wash and Dry the Face Sponges and flannel should never be allowed to touch the face ; water should be dabbed on with cotton-wool, or squares oi butter-muslin, and these should be con- stantly renewed. The water should then be thoroughly wiped (not scrubbed) off with a soft linen diaper towel kept for the face alone. But as soon as possible the child should be taught to splash and dab the water on her own face with her own hand, which is the method recommended by all the best French beauty doctors. From the first the face should be dried in the right way — the forehead up ; the eyes across (from nose outwards) ; the nose down, and the cheeks from the jaw upwards ; the neck from the jaw-bone downwards. This habit is easily acquired and becomes instinctive, and undoubtedly it does much to prevent wrinkles and that " sagging " of the cheeks which gives a middle-aged look to the most blooming face. Soap If soft water is used to wash the face, soap will seldom be needed. A cake of the very best, pure unscented soap may be kept in the nursery for extra grimy faces, but, as a rule, a little cold-cream applied with the finger and wiped off with a clean, soft rag is more satisfactory. Some people praise milk baths for the face, or the habitual use of cream instead of water, but this advice is of dubious value because all grease encourages the growth of " super- fluous " hair. I have seen a lovely girl of seventeen, whose apple-blossom cheeks were covered with a golden down, visible half across the room, as the result of daily bathing in milk from childhood ! Neither the face nor the hands should be washed without being thoroughly dried afterwards. Children and servants alike are prone to give their hands a hasty rinse, and then merely to dab with a towel. This is a habit which is responsible for many red hands. Once a day at least the nails should be rubbed round to press back the cuticle, and polished against the palm of the hand. There need be no thought of vanity in this ; unpolished nails, like unpolished boots, should simply be regarded as untidy. Indigestion Indigestion may exist, and play havoc with the complexion, without necessarily causing " a pain inside." Its presence may be first detected by the sight of a greasy nose, a shiny or flushed face, or some tiny blackheads, that at first yield readily to treatment, but later reappear as " enlarged pores," which, of all disfigurements, are the most difficult to get rid of when once they have been established. Now, indigestion usually comes of improper feeding. Most modern mothers study their children's diet, and children never have been so sensibly fed as now, but all the care given to supply plain, wholesome meals may be wasted if the following rules are neglected : Eat slowly. Drink little at meals, and plenty of water between them. Do not rush about, do not read, for ten minutes after each meal. Do not nibble between meals. Do not let children touch tea, coffee, wine, cheap sweets, or rich cakes. Between Meals A properly fed child should not want to eat between meals, and often her " hunger " will be better assuaged by a glass of water than by a " bicky." Children do not need stimulants, and many of the most beautiful society debutantes never touched tea or coffee till they " came out." Good sweets are wholesome at meal times, for sugar is a heat-producer and muscle food, and is necessary to children, but perhaps this food may be better administered in the form of brown sugar on bread-and- butter, and golden syrup, because, if the taste for sweets is once acquired, the child is apt to buy them for herself, and buy for quantity instead of quality. Cheap sweets are most pernicious ; they contain all manner of complexion-injuring ingredients. Cheap chocolates, for instance, are often adulterated with tallow, and this is a sub- stance which even the most careless mother would not select to nourish her offspring ! If sweets are absolutely barred, but sufficient sugar supplied, no hardship will be felt. Children are quite sensible enough to understand that their body is a beautiful machine, which cannot be replaced or renewed if it is spoiled. Sweets between meals hurt the machine, just as grit in the gear-case clogs the bicycle. Once convince the child of this, and there will be no diffi- culty in enforcing the prohibition. Exposure The English climate is kinder to com- plexions than that of the Continent or of America ; it is moist, and drought is a great enemy of the skin. Sunburn in spring and summer, chaps and roughness in winter, however, should be guarded against. The late Duchess of Leinster, one of the loveliest women in England, was never allowed to go out as a child without a large, shady hat and a thick, blue veil. Such drastic treatment certainly preserves the delicate bloom of childhood, but it is not to be recommended, because tiie lack of fresh air and freedom reacts on the health in other ways, and, it will be remembered, the Duchess of Leinster died of consump- tion while she was still quite young To be continued.