These seven million mouths must be fed daily and hourly. Their food is
light and air. Man is not only fed and nourished through the portal of his
mouth, but through all the pores of his body, by drawing in nutriment from
the surrounding elements, even from the viewless air.
These little mouths also need moisture. This fact is revealed to the
senses through the medium of the nerves; for, how grateful to the dry,
parched skin, is a bath of cold water! or, if the blood is in a "low
state,"--impoverished by disease,--let it be a tepid bath. Let it feel
comfortable and grateful to the user. This is a good rule to direct you.
The little children love it--love to paddle and splash in it. If they cry
and fight against washing, it is usually because of the rudeness of the
operator, who, with brawny palm or rough sponge takes the child unawares,
nearly suffocating it, and briskly and rudely rubbing over the surface of
the tender face, regardless of such small obstructions as nose, chin, and
lips, and not unusually dashing a quantity of yellow soap suds into the
infantile eyes. The next time the little fellow is requested to be washed,
he, remembering the last _scouring_, naturally objects to a repetition of
the unpleasant process.
As the nostrils inhale pure air beneficially, they also exhale impurities.
The pores also excrete, or throw off impurities. A healthy skin will throw
out, by the pores, from two to three pounds of impure matter every
twenty-four hours. To be sure a greater quantity of this impurity is a
vapory substance, yet that holds in solution solid particles of corrupt
matter, which greatly tend to clog the pores if left to obstruct free
perspiration.