HEALTH AND – BODY-BUILDING

Southern Cross, Volume 15, Issue 51, 28 March 1908, Page 2

HEALTH AND - BODY-BUILDING

(By “Physical Guitarist.”) iTHB CULTURE OF THE SKIN. SOME ADVICE TO DIRTY, PEOPLE, 1 'Comparatively few people take a bath more than once a week. Now, if they knew anything about the skin, and what results from neglecting it, they would all have a bath every day. Even people of the socalled educated classes may heard to exclaim: “What need to take a bath every day ? One cannot possibly get the body so dirty if one’s linen is changed frequently, and do no v. ork. In the first place, the loose dirt .which comes from without is perhaps blacker, but is not so dangerous as the 'dirt, consisting of waste matter given off through the skin in much larger quantities than most ’people ■think, and which can be partially absorbed again to poison the body if and poisonous substances which is it is not removed every day. As a proof of the facility with which substances from without can penetrate through the skin to the internal organs, let me mention that if a solution of salicylic acid be rubbed into the skin, salicylic acid can be detected in the urine a few hours afterwards. And it is not only very injurious to oneself, but very objectionable to .those whose sense of smell has not been blunted by an unhealthy mode of life, to allow perspiration and grease from the skin to stay and putril’y, and be partially absorbed by the body. As a rule, people are shy of saying such things to each other, but I do not intend to beat about the bush. It is well that people who do not take baths should be told that, even if there be no outwardly visible signs, the fact is patent to one’s sense of smell. When such a person has been in a room for a

minute, it is always advisable to open the door as well as the window, and so get a good current of air to blow the pestilential vapours away. I am not by any means talking of the working classes alone, but gentlemen in frock coats and ladies in evening dress are to be met with who are not the cleanest. By the smell of these people one would imagine they only had an annual bath. Nothing feels so grand as the sensation of a cold shower bath. I notice it, especially at night that if I take a shower immediately before retiring I can rest all the better for it.

Regarding the management of the skin. Dr. Stanford Read, in his book t-How to Keep Well,” says, “To insist. on cleanliness in the twentieth century would almost seem superfluous, yet there are thousands in the Country who would never wash themselves from year’s end to year’s end. No sooner have we opened our eyes and uttered our first shrill cry as helpless infants than our nurse sets to with a will and soaps and scrubs us till our skin glows rosy pink. As ,we begin to move about, and come more directly in contact with dirt, by a strange inconsistency, we, as children, are left less often washed until it may come to the weekly Saturday night’s tubbing. When the Skin is not regularly washed, and kept clean, dirt and the accumulated secretions on the surface plug up the

pores and prevent their working properly, more work being thrown on the internal organs, the general health tends to suffer in consequence.

. “The skin, being oily, cannot be cleansed by water alone- And though the morning cold bath is bracing and invigorating, and, aided and supplemented by friction with a rough towel, removes much of the secretion, some other substance which will so alter the greasy coating as to render it capable of being washed off, must be used. This is found in soap. All soap should be entirely washed off with water before the skin is dried, otherwise a shiny appearance is left. Highly coloured and scented soaps are, in general, to be avoided, and medicated soaps are not to be recommended in health.

“There is a popular prejudice against washing the face with soap, as thereby "the complexion would bo injured. The reverse is really the fact. Dust and soot adhere to the oily material poured out by the glands of the face and stop up their openings. Unless soap is used to keep them free and active, these glands become sluggish, and thus give rise to a bad complexion. In health, no cosmetic of any kind should be recommended, though, doubtless they will ever continue to bo used by many. Actresses will do so from its enforced use behind the footlights, and others think they can make up by artificial means what Nature gave them not. All face powders have the effect of greatly drying the skin. It must be borne in mind, however, that Nature, in her efforts to keep the skin moist is not to be thwarted without making great resistance, and the more the dryingprocess is carried on the more she stimulates tho secreting glands to produce moisture to overcome such a condition. In time the -walls of the glands become thickened, and after a while the stage is reached when the mouths of these glands permanently gape, and produce that pitted ‘ -appearance So often observable in those who have habitually used such pre-pai-ations.”