“A thorough scrubbing.”
Mother: I think so, and not only some parts, but the whole house needs a good scrubbing with soap and warm water as often as twice a week, and if he will then take a bath of some kind each day, that will keep the skin clean and healthy. Even rubbing the whole body once a day with a damp towel and then with a dry one, will keep the waste-pipes open, so they can do good work, if there is a thorough scrubbing twice a week, as I have said. We should also be careful to wear clean clothing next to the skin, for there is about a quart of waste matter carried through the pores every day. Can you think of any other ways in which the skin is useful besides being a covering and carrying away the waste?
Helen: It helps us feel different objects. Those who are blind learn to do many useful things by the sense of touch.
Mother: Yes, we learn many things by this sense. You know when you show anything to a baby it stretches out its little hands to “feel” of the object. How do you think such poisons as alcohol and tobacco affect this covering of the body?
Amy: They must make more waste in the body, and so the skin has more to do.
Percy: I think it must fill it full of poison.
Elmer: Does alcohol make the skin look red, mother?
Mother: Yes; that is why a man who drinks beer or other drinks containing alcohol, has such a red face. Sometimes his nose is called a “rum blossom.” The alcohol makes the blood-vessels larger than they should be, and so his nose and face become very red. Bad food is also hurtful to the skin, for it can not be clear and healthy if the blood is not clean. Pimples and sores are caused by bad blood, and they show that better food is needed in the body.
Amy: But you haven’t told us what the roof of the body house is, mother.