Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/130

 remedied, the trouble with the lips passed away under the use of simple glycerine. So important is it, in even the most trifling blemishes of the face, to investigate the workings of the whole system!

Nearly all the lip-salves sold under whatever high-sounding names and in whatever elegance of wrappings, are of spermaceti ointment, colored, perfumed, sweetened, and occasionally with the addition of a small quantity of alum or borax, and of glycerine. The last-mentioned substance in the form of "glycerine cream," that is, well beaten with lard, or with castor oil, and scented, is an excellent application, provided the glycerine is chemically pure, which, we regret to say, is rarely the case. Persons prone to irritations of the lips should provide themselves a supply of some such salve from a first-class druggist, and use a little every night and morning during the winter. Bathing the lips, before applying it, in water in which some alum or borax has been dissolved (a teaspoon even full to a tumbler of water) will be found of great service.

An unsightly spot occasionally forms at the corners of the mouth, moist and reddish, with a tendency to crust over and be tender. This arises usually from acidity of the saliva, and is connected with indigestion and "heart-burn." It can be temporarily helped, and sometimes cured, by rinsing the mouth several times a day with a solution of bicarbonate of soda,