Sunburn
may be avoided by gradually accustoming your limbs to the exposure. Dearly will you pay for your negligence if you go out for a day with bare arms or legs in the hot sun before you have toughened yourself, and little will you sleep that night.
I have seen young men going to business the day following a regatta with no collars on their red necks, and no shirt over their soft undershirts, the skin being too tender to bear the touch of the stiff, starched linen, and I have known others who could not sleep a wink on account of the feverish state of their bodies, caused by the hot sun and a tender skin. Most boys have had some experience from sunburn, acquired while bathing. If care is taken to cover your arms and legs after about an hour's exposure, you will find that in place of being blistered, your skin will be first pink and then a faint brownish tint, which each succeeding exposure will deepen until your limbs will assume that dark, rich mahogany color of which athletes are so proud. This makes your skin proof against future attacks of the hottest rays of the sun.
Besides the pain and discomfort of a sudden and bad sunburn on your arms, the effect is not desirable, as it is very liable to cover your arms with freckles. I have often seen men with beautifully bronzed arms and freckled shoulders, caused by going out in their shells first with short sleeves and then with shirts from which the sleeves were entirely cut away, exposing the white, tender shoulders to the fierce heat, to which they were unaccustomed.
It is a good plan to cover the exposed parts of your body with sweet-oil, vaseline, mutton-tallow, beef-tallow, or lard. This is good as a preventive while in the sun, and excellent as an application after exposure. Any sort of oil or grease that does not contain salt is good for your skin.