ON THE CULTURE OF BEAUTY, GRACE, AND HEALTH IN YOUTH

Seções: Índice Geral Seção Atual: Índice Obra: Índice Anterior: 21. Sobre a Cultura da Beleza, Graça e Saúde na Juventude – VI Seguinte: 23. Sobre a Cultura da Beleza, Graça e Saúde na Juventude – VIIII

(p. 159)

22. SOBRE A CULTURA DA BELEZA,

GRAÇA E SAÚDE NA JUVENTUDE – VII

MY DEAR SIBYL, – As I have already written a good deal to you concerning the cultivation of the voice and the development of the figure, let us now give our mind to the consideration of the complexion, and the care and preservation of beauty generally.

In very early childhood the complexion is always, unless in cases of disease, clear and blooming. This skin of milk and roses, however, begins to tarnish and fade at about seven years of age, sometimes even earlier. Mothers who wish to preserve a beautiful complexion in their children should pay especial attention to two important matters – ventilation, and quality of food. The first essentials for the culture and preservation of beauty are pure air and sunshine. Nurseries should catch the morning sun, and should be airy, with high ceilings and open beds. Children should run about out of doors as much as possible, and be encouraged to play in the garden rather than in the house. Next, they should be nourished on the simplest and plainest fare, consisting chiefly of milk and milky foods, ripe fruits in summer, wholemeal bread, and all kinds of farinaceous dishes, such as sago, macaroni, tapioca, semolina, rice, vermicelli, hominy, and so forth. Children do not require meat; they seldom like the taste of it, and when it is not forced

(p. 160)

on them they are sure to prefer sweet and milky foods. Never give children beer to drink, nor any kind of alcoholic liquor. Naturally pure water is the best beverage they can take, but, if it be difficult to get, Salutaris, St. Galmier, or Apollinaris water may be substituted. I cannot forbear, while on this subject, to quote a passage from Hygiene of the Skin, by Mr. Milton, senior surgeon to St. John’s Hospital for Diseases of the Skin. He says: –

“Of all the pestilent habits now prevailing, that of giving boys and girls beer is, perhaps, the worst. There are other habits which do their work more rapidly, but they are only casually operative; whereas the use of beer is always and everywhere sowing the seeds of mischief; eating like a leprosy into the land. Like leprosy, too, the habit gets more hold of the system with each successive year, the factitious strength and stimulus which malt liquor imparts for the time being made an excuse for continuing it, even when the victim finds that it is spoiling the natural zest for food. (...) The grown-up patient pays the penalty of a mistake begun, it may be, fifteen or twenty years ago. In my own experience this has been especially noticed as affecting the skin, kidneys, and nervous system. The skin becomes thick, muddy, and pimply, a fact evinced by the speedy improvement which ensues from merely leaving off malt liquors, without making any other change; so that I would advise every young lady who values her complexion, and particularly when she suffers under a tendency to eruption of any kind, to eschew beer as a worse poison than she could find in Apothecaries’ Hall. She is violating the rules of hygiene by putting an undue strain upon her system and her skin, which latter it is just as possible to overtax as it is to overload the

(p. 161)

stomach or work the brain to hard. (...) Cider, though it does not induce so much visible disturbance of the constitution, is almost as mischievous with regard to the skin.”

Tea, coffee, cocoa, and chocolate are all bad for children, causing heartburn, indigestion, sick headache, and rendering the skin yellow and opaque-looking. Nothing is so good for girls and boys as milk and water; milk at breakfast and supper, water at the mid-day meal.

Every morning a tepid bath – rain-water if possible – should be used in the nursery, but care must be taken that the nurse does not wash two or more children in the same water. Each child must have its own bath; the water must be plentiful, and the soap employed of the very best kind. Nothing injures the complexion so soon as bad soap. A large number of toilet soaps commonly used contain an excess of alkaline matter, which is extremely pernicious to delicate skins; others are made by means of the “cold process,” which does not obtain complete chemical solution of the ingredients; others, again, are mixed with animal fats of a coarse kind, such as dripping and kitchen refuse. Nor is this all. Many of the highly-scented and coloured toilet soaps contain a considerable amount of lime, chalk, or gypsum, and owe their attractive tints to noxious mineral matters. The best soaps are uncoloured and unscented transparent soaps, the type of which is Pears’ hospital soap, made according to the suggestions of the surgeon already cited. Among opaque scented soaps I know of none so pure as Dr. Nichols’ “Sanitary Soap” prepared with fine vegetable oil. Soap ought to contain from 15 to 20 per cent, of water, 7 or 8 percent, of soda, and from 67 to 70 per cent of oil. In order that the daily bath

(p. 162)

should be really beneficial, children must be well rubbed from head to foot with a rough Turkish towel after the wash. Friction is essential to the preservation of a healthy skin and robust circulation.

During the summer do not permit your little girls to ramble about with unprotected faces, or they will certainly get freckled, and freckles are sometimes difficult to remove. Large cotton bonnets or shady hats should always be worn in hot weather, and the face should be bathed with a little cider-flower water after a long walk under a summer sun.

When children are quite young, the length and luxuriance of the eyelashes may be enhanced by careful clipping of the points every month or six weeks. This operation, however, requires the greatest possible precaution in order to avoid hurting the child or injuring the eye. The eyebrows may be thickened also by the same method. If a child’s nose has a tendency to grow upward, in other words, to become “snub,” or unduly broad at the base, it may be coaxed into better shape by judicious manipulation daily applied. In early years the cartilage which forms the framework of the nose is extremely pliable, and easily lends itself to external pressure and training.

One of the most important adjuncts to personal beauty is a good, sound, and even set of teeth. With comely teeth no plain woman is ugly, while with bad teeth no handsome woman is attractive. It is in childhood that the teeth assert themselves for better or for worse, and mothers who have the personal appearance of their daughters at heart, ought, therefore, to pay a very special attention to the hygiene and toilet of the mouth during their infancy. The enamel of the teeth in childhood is very delicate; therefore hard toothbrushes should be

(p. 163)

avoided, and only a soft brush of badger’s hair used once or twice a day. For shape I know no toothbrushes that can compare with Mr. Baiter’s “Perfect Pattern” brush, the handle of which is curved so as to follow the contour of the dental arcades, and the bristles graduated in length. I always use this brush myself, and can confidently recommend it. Toothpowders are an unnecessary for children living on simple milk foods; a little weak myrrh and water, tepid, is quite enough to cleanse both teeth and gums. If the second teeth appear evenly they will need no manipulation, but should they project or show a tendency to grow irregularly, they should be pressed frequently into their proper position, and care must be taken to remove the first (or milk teeth) if not naturally shed, as soon as the permanent ones appear. If a first tooth remains fixed in the gain when its successor shows itself, the latter will necessarily deviate from its rightful place, and will either project forward like a tusk, or will usurp the position of other teeth, and so the regularity of the whole set will be spoilt, and perhaps even the shape of the mouth affected. If the least spot of decay becomes visible on any tooth, take the child at once to a dentist and get gold stopping filled in, and the progress of the mischief arrested. By this means you will avoid not only the chance of future disfigurement by the loss of the tooth, but also the certainty of much suffering and disordered health.

With regard to the treatment of the hair in early youth, I am of opinion that, as a rule, it is better to wear it short. I think the luxuriance and beauty of the hair in future years is best secured by the free use of the scissors in childhood; and, moreover, the comfort of the child itself is greatly enhanced by the absence of curlpapers, hairpins, combs, and other adjuncts of long

(p. 164)

tresses. Short hair can be washed daily in soft warm water, and so kept perfectly clean with but little trouble, without recourse to the use of washes or oils, which are never advisable for children’s heads. If the hair should show any tendency to fall abnormally, the employment of an electric brush will be found of considerable value, and this, with the occasional application of a quinine lotion, and strict attention to general hygiene, will usually suffice to arrest the complaint.

Let your children go to bed early: about an hour and half after their last meal, or at the latest two hours, and see that they do not lie late in the morning. Children should be up by seven o’clock, or even half-past six, in summer time, and by eight in winter; and if you can turn them out in the garden for a run before breakfast, so much the better.