“To give a fine colour to the nails, the hands and fingers must be well
lathered and washed with scented soap; then the nails must be rubbed
with equal parts of cinnabar and emery, followed by oil of bitter
almonds. To take white specks from the nails, melt equal parts of pitch
and turpentine in a small cup; add to it vinegar and powdered sulphur.
Rub this on the nails and the specks will soon disappear. Pitch and
myrrh melted together may be used with the same results.”
But, after all, what is the use of beautifying one’s hands as long as
ladies bow to the Fashion Fetish, which compels them to conceal them in
the skins of animals? To wear gloves on going out, as a protection
against rough weather and for the sake of cleanliness, is rational
enough; but to wear them at social gatherings is almost as absurd as the
compulsory impenetrable veils of Turkish women; for does not the hand
rank next to the face as an index of character?
Another stupidity of fashion is our enforced and cultivated
right-handedness. Despite the force of inherited habit, children show a
natural inclination toward using both their hands equally; but they are
constantly scolded and punished, until they have succeeded, like their
parents, in reducing one hand to a state of imbecility, so to speak,
which is constantly betrayed in awkward, ungraceful action. Practising
on a musical instrument, with special attention to the left hand, has a
tendency to correct this awkwardness. Indeed, is there any part of the
body that music does not benefit? Dancing to a Strauss waltz gives
elasticity to the limbs and grace to the gait; singing is the most
useful kind of lung-gymnastics, and develops the chest; a
musically-trained ear modulates the voice to sweeter expression; while
equally skilled and graceful hands are acquired by practice on a musical
instrument. So that the word music, though much less comprehensive than
among the ancient Greeks, has lost none of the magic, beautifying power
they ascribed to it.
Much of the ugliness in the world is due to the neglect of parents in
properly supervising the actions of their children, to prevent the
formation of bad habits, which ruin beauty irretrievably. As an instance
of what can be done in this direction may be cited the following remark
by a Philadelphia surgeon: “The school-girl habit of biting the nails
must be broken up at once. If in children, rub a little extract of
quassia on the finger-tips. This is so bitter that they are careful not
to taste it twice. Not only the nails, but the whole finger and hand is
often forfeited by neglect in this respect.”
By travelling from the shoulder down to the finger-tips we have
apparently interrupted our steady progress from toe to tip of the body.
But we shall see in a moment that the interruption is only apparent, for
our subject leads naturally “from Hand to Mouth.”