THE HANDS.
The appearance of the hands is secondary only to that of the face, and
many women pride themselves upon their beautiful white hands. But it
is not everybody who can have white hands. Manual labour will always
make the hands red and rough, and no amount of applications will whiten
them. General servants and laundry women cannot expect their hands to
remain white. It is interesting to see why house labour should injure
the appearance of the hands in this way. In the first place the hands
must get a good deal knocked about by the rough work necessary in a
household. Laying fires, cleaning grates, blacking boots, etc., make
the hands rough from inflicting numerous small injuries upon them. You
all know that if you cut your finger the place remains hard and horny
for some time afterwards, and so hands that are exposed to rough usage
will also get horny and coarse. Then, again, rough red hands, being
less delicate, are better fitted to do hard work, and so Nature, who
cares more for usefulness than for idle beauty, will tend to make the
hands of those who do manual labour hard and coarse. Another reason why
servants so often have red hands is the constant use of soda and water,
which is necessary for cleaning the house. Soda is very bad for the
hands, and this, together with the impossibility of keeping the hands
dry, is another cause of red hands.
With a little care, nearly everybody can have white hands. Even in
those who have to work hard a little care will often do wonders to
keep the hands from becoming very red--not from becoming red slightly,
for nothing will prevent this. When you wash your hands, always dry
them afterwards on a fairly rough towel. In winter you should be very
careful about thoroughly drying your hands, as it takes very little to
produce chaps.
If you are desirous of having white hands, always wear gloves when you
go out. This, indeed, will do more than anything else to keep the hands
white.
In the winter most persons suffer from chaps. These are a more
pronounced and more acute form of "red hands." But they are often very
painful, and if not properly treated are apt to be very persistent and
unsightly.
Prevention is better than cure, and we can do a considerable amount
to prevent our hands from becoming chapped. It is the cold wind
that produces chaps, and so, if you would be freed from this evil,
you should always wear thick gloves when you go out in a strong
north-easter. I have already mentioned that you should dry your hands
very carefully after washing. If you are very liable to chaps, you
should not wash your hands in cold water, but only use warm water, not
hot (for this is worse than cold water for producing chaps), but just
slightly warm. You must also be careful about the soap you use, as
coarse alkaline soaps are very bad, and make chapped hands smart.
If the chaps are not very bad, a little glycerine and rose-water may be
applied after washing. This is very efficacious in a mild case, but it
is insufficient in more severe grades of the affection. The following
preparation I have found invaluable for severe chaps--sulphate of zinc,
two grains; compound tincture of lavender, one dram; glycerine, three
drams; rose-water to the ounce.
A very much worse affair than chaps is a chilblain. Indeed, a bad
broken chilblain is a very serious and unpleasant matter. Chilblains
may occur in anyone, but they are most common in persons in whom the
circulation is feeble. I have seen a terribly bad chilblain in an
anæmic girl. Moreover, when the circulation is below par, chilblains do
not heal properly, and give great trouble often for months together.
Warm gloves, warm stockings, loose-fitting boots, and flannel next the
skin all over the body, are the best safeguards against this complaint.
As chilblains are a kind of minor frostbite, keeping warm will
necessarily prevent them, but it is very difficult for a person with
feeble circulation to keep warm.
If you have a chilblain coming do not scratch it, for this makes it far
worse. Bathe the part gently in warm spirit and water, and wrap the
finger or toe, whichever it is, in a thick layer of cotton wool. If you
do this you will probably prevent the chilblains from bursting.
There are a large number of messy preparations made of lard, dripping,
tallow, cream, and other "pantry drugs," which are advised for
chilblains. They are none of them any good. A broken chilblain is a
septic wound, that is, it is a wound that contains germs. It should
therefore be treated as a septic wound. Wash the place gently in
diluted carbolic acid lotion (1 in 80), or warm solution of boracic
acid. Then cover the broken surface thickly with powdered boracic acid,
and put on a bandage. If you do this, and attend to your general health
at the same time, you get rid of your chilblains more rapidly than by
any other method.
Warts are more common on the hands than anywhere else. Of their cause
we know but little. Irritation sometimes causes them, and they are to
a certain extent infectious from place to place. We used to be taught
that lady-birds produced or cured them, according to which version of
the story we heard. There is about an equal amount of truth in each
doctrine.
The best way to treat warts is to first soak the hand in hot water,
and clean it thoroughly with soap. Then paint the skin surrounding the
wart with vaseline, and drop on to the wart itself one drop of glacial
acetic acid. Wait one minute, and then well rub the wart over with a
stick of lunar caustic (silver nitrate). This treatment may require to
be repeated, but I have never known it to fail.
(_To be continued._)
GIRLS AS I HAVE KNOWN THEM.
BY ELSA D'ESTERRE-KEELING, Author of "Old Maids and Young."