Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/256

 That noble dame suffered from an eruption on her body which could not be cured. At length it invaded her hands and face. When she thus found herself disfigured, she took to her bed, and saying: "It is time for me to depart," refused all attentions, and died. However severe such eruptions may be, very few are beyond the reach of modern medical science.

PIMPLES, HIVES, CARBUNCLES, ETC.

On every square inch of the skin there are hundreds and hundreds of little openings, through which the perspiration finds an exit, or in which the hairs are planted. These openings lead to short canals which descend into the true skin. Besides the perspiration, the sides of these canals secrete a fatty substance which gives to the skin its oiliness and smoothness.

Sometimes the aperture of one of the canals becomes choked, and the fatty secretion, instead of flowing out, is penned in and hardens. The portion of it at the aperture becomes dirty and black, and forms one of those small black specks on the face, which common people call "grubs," from the belief that they are the black heads of little worms. They can be readily pressed out after washing the face with soap, and anointing it with glycerine.

When for some reason the health is not robust, as for instance when young people are growing too rapidly, a canal or sweat-gland which is thus stopped up