eserve the delicacy and beauty of the hands, some little care,
and more than that which is ordinarily bestowed on them, is required.
Foremost in consideration must be the subject of cleanliness. Dirty
and coarse hands are no less marks of slothfulness and lowbreeding
than clean and delicate hands are of refinement and gentility. To
promote softness and whiteness of the skin, mild emollient soaps, or
those abounding in oil or fat, should alone be adopted for common use;
by which means the tendency to contract chaps and chilblains, and
roughness from drying winds, will also be lessened. The coarse, strong
kinds of soap, those abounding in alkali, should be rejected, as they
tend to render the skin rough, dry and brittle. Rain, or soft, water
is the best natural water for washing the hands, as it cleanses them
more rapidly and completely than ordinary hard water, and with the use
of less soap. It may be advantageously used tepid, or even warm; but
hot water should be avoided. Distilled water, when obtainable, is
preferable to even rain water. In the absence of these, water that
has been boiled and allowed to settle and cool may be employed. With
hard water the hands are cleansed with difficulty, and though it may
be readily softened by the addition of a little soda, such an addition
tends to make the skin of a delicate hand somewhat hard and rough. If
hard water must be used to wash with, the only harmless substance that
can be conveniently added to it is a little good powdered borax. This
will also cause it to exert a genial action on the skin. Oatmeal and
warm water used every night and morning as a wash will whiten and
soften the roughest and darkest hands.

=Coarse, Red, Dark-Skinned Hands= may be whitened by the occasional use
of a few grains of chloride of lime, with warm water, in the manner
mentioned above.

=Roughness of the Hands=, induced by exposure to cold and drying winds,
may, in general, be removed by the use of a little powdered pumice
stone with the soap in washing them. The subsequent application,
particularly at night, of the above lotions, or of two or three drops
of almond or olive oil, well rubbed in, will usually effect the object
completely.

The hands may be preserved dry for delicate work by rubbing a little
club moss (lycopodium), in fine powder, over them. So repellent is
this substance of moisture, that if a small quantity of it be
sprinkled on the surface of a basin of water, the hand, by