Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/62

 to increase, a diet largely vegetable is most efficient. Of vegetables, the roots are as a rule fattening, while those which ripen above ground have not such an effect.

There is no need to stuff one's self with these appetizing dishes. Remember it is not the quantity but the kind of food, and its ready conversion into flesh that are demanded. It is essential that the digestion be kept in perfect order, therefore an overloaded stomach is a positive injury.

In some parts of Asia, where a considerable embon-*point is deemed essential to beauty, the art of fattening damsels "for the trade" has been carried to a high degree of perfection. They sleep long and late on soft beds, and they avoid violent exercise or disturbing thoughts. They bathe in lukewarm water, and take while in the bath a broth made from fat chickens boiled with rice or with arrowroot. On leaving the water they are softly rubbed down with scented vegetable oils, such as pure olive oil boiled with gum benzoin, which not only preserves it from rancidity but imparts to it a rich aroma. The oil prevents the watery fluid from passing out in the perspiration, and softens the outer layer of the skin. They drink moderately of a sweet mixture of honey and water, and take daily a preparation of the castor bean, which slightly moves the bowels and increases the appetite.

All these details are not applicable with us, but this