Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/163

 "Doctor, how white and smooth your hands are. Why don't you tell us your secret for keeping them so?"

"Madam," replied the doctor, "if I were to tell you, you would not believe me; or at any rate you would not imitate me."

"Oh yes I will, doctor; do tell me."

"I never wash them"

"What!"

"With water."

"With what then?"

"With the best olive oil of Aix. Don't you remember that the ancient athletes anointed themselves daily with oil? You may be sure those gallants were never troubled with skin diseases."

Since Baron Alibert's time we have discovered something even better than the oil of Aix; it is glycerine. A bottle of pure glycerine—but chemically pure, remember, without any of those salts of lime or of lead which are found in much of the glycerine sold, and which will discolor and irritate the skin—should form an indispensable adjunct in every lady's toilet set. A tablespoonful of it in a pint of water will soften and protect the hand from the air. It should be rubbed in, but not wiped off.

To whiten the hands promptly, five or six grains of chlorinated lime may be dissolved in the water, which in all cases should be as near the temperature of the body as may be. The lotions which contain corrosive