Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/206

 the name of the "Balm of Gilead" as a medicine of renown in most ancient times.

There are only too many persons in our land whose complexion is "muddied" by a scrofulous taint in their families. They are usually either fair-skinned blondes, or sallow brunettes. Both should make it a rule to employ daily a wash such as this:—

Take— Iodide of potassium     two drachms; Glycerine               one ounce; Rain water              one pint.

Mix them, and apply with a soft sponge.

These are probably enough instructions on this point. Not that the list is nearly exhausted. There are many other excellent cosmetic washes, but they contain such deadly substances as corrosive sublimate, prussic acid, and arsenic, not proper to be used except under the supervision of a physician, and dangerous to keep on the toilet table, where children may reach them. Of such powerful poisons are composed many of the washes sold in the stores, and they should therefore never be ignorantly patronized. Those we have given above are, in most cases, quite as efficient as any, and are all innocuous.

Here we must insert what lawyers call a "proviso" concerning their use. Our readers must remember that we are all this time speaking of a healthy skin, and how to keep it. If the skin is already suffering