Mothers of England do, let me entreat you, ponder well upon what I have said. Do rescue your girls from the bondage of fashion and of folly, which is worse than the bondage of the Egyptian task masters, for the Israelites did, in making bricks without straw, work m the open air—"So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw," but your girls, many of them, at least, have no work, either in the house or in the open air—they have no exercise whatever. They are poor, drawling, dawdling, miserable nonentities, with muscles, for the want of proper exercise, like ribands, and with faces, for the lack of fresh air, as white as a sheet of paper. What a host of charming girls are yearly sacrificed at the shrine of fashion and of folly.
Another, and a frequent cause of costiveness, is the bad habit of disobeying the call of having the bowels opened. The moment there is the slightest inclination to relieve the bowels, instantly it ought to be attended to, or serious results will follow. Let me urge a mother to instil into her daughter's mind the importance of this advice.
379. Young people are subject to pimples on the face, what is the remedy?
These hard red pimples (acne—"the grub pimple") are a common and an obstinate affection of the skin, affecting the forehead, the temples, the nose, the chin, and the cheeks, occasionally attacking the neck, the shoulders, the back, and the chest; and as they more frequently affect the young, from the age of 15 to 35, and are disfiguring, they cause much annoyance. "These pimples are so well known by most persons as scarcely to need description; they are conical, red, and hard; after a while, they become white, and yellow at the point, then discharge a thick, yellow-coloured matter, mingled with a whitish substance, and become covered by a hard brown scab, and lastly, disappear very slowly, sometimes very imperfectly, and often leaving an ugly scar behind them. To these symptoms are not unfrequently added considerable pain, and always much unsightliness. When these little cones have the black head of a 'grub' at their point, they constitute the variety termed spotted acne. These latter often remain stationary for months, without increasing or becoming red; but when they inflame, they are in nowise different in their course from the common kind."—Wilson on Healthy Skin.
I find, in these cases, great benefit to be derived from bathing the face, night and morning, with strong salt and water—a table-spoonful of table-salt to a tea-cupful of water; by paying attention to the bowels; by living on plain, wholesome, nourishing food; and by taking a great of out-door exercise. Sea-bathing, in these cases, is often very beneficial. Grubs and worms have a mortal antipathy to salt.
380. What is the cause of a Gum-boil?
A decayed root of a tooth, which causes inflammation and abscess of the gum, which abscess breaks, and thus becomes a gum-boil.
381. What is the treatment of a Gum-boil?
Foment the outside of the face with a hot camomile and poppy head fomentation, [Footnote: Four poppy heads and four ounces of camomile blows to be boiled in four pints of water for half an hoar, and then to be strained to make the fomentation.] and apply to the gum-boil, between the cheek and the gum, a small white bread and milk poultice, [Footnote: Cut a piece of bread, about the size of the little finger— without breaking it into crumb—pour boiling hot milk upon it, cover it over, and let it stand for five minutes, then apply the soaked bread over the gum-boil, letting it rest between the cheek and the gum.] which renew frequently.
As soon as the gum-boil has become quiet, by all means have the affected tooth extracted, or it might cause disease, and consequently serious injury of the jaw; and whenever the patient catches cold there will be a renewal of the inflammation, of the abscess, and of the gum-boil, and, as a matter of course, renewed pain, trouble, and annoyance. Moreover, decayed fangs of teeth often cause the breath to be offensive.