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Skin, Health and Beauty

Health and beauty are closely allied, and nowhere so clearly as in the condition of the skin. A pure skin, being an important element of human beauty as well as of health, should therefore be a subject of much interest to mankind. The fundamental laws of health apply to this envelope of the body, the skin, with as much stringency as to parts that lie beneath it, all nourished by the blood coursing through every part of the body with greater or less efficacy according to whether or not they are in good condition from diet, ablution, and many other circumstances.

The life of no organ can be considered apart from other components of the body. The skin is quick to reflect disorder of other portions of the organism. No wonder that this is so, for, as Herbert Spencer remarks, it is that surface by which we come in contact with the universe! A large element in personal beauty consists in the nature and condition of the skin. Excellence in these, associated with elegance of form and sprightliness of action, can even dispense with regularity of features in the production of harmonious and attractive bodily attributes, so it becomes apparent that, to some degree, we all have our looks under command.

In consequence of this and other facts, the author purposes, in successive chapters, to point out to the reader the various methods by which health may be influenced by climate, diet, clothing, ventilation, bathing, and exercise. He will incidentally call attention to the deleterious effects of certain habits, and include brief descriptions of diseases that frequently invade the skin, not neglecting, in this connection, mention of the eruptive diseases of childhood. The diseases to which the hair and nails are subject will here also receive attention. Finally, the legitimate employment of cosmetics will be defined, and choice formulae given for their preparation.

The uses of the superposed skins described the true skin, scarf-skin, and the skin as a whole. Their relation toatmospheric conditions in maintaining equableness in the temperature of the body. The effect of moist heat upon the bodv. The normal temperature of the body. The excretory function of the skin. Death produced by its artificial stoppage. Perspiration. The oily matter of the skin, known as sebum. Respiration by means of the skin. Its tactile sensibility. Highly developed tactile sensibility in the blind and among persons following certain occupations. Insensibility and perversions of the sense of touch. Appreciation by the skin of various degrees of temperature. Difference in susceptibility to pain among different races and in different conditions among mankind. Occurrence among the insane of insensitiveness of skin. The influence of mind upon perception of physical injury. Excessive itching indicative of functional derangement of the nervous system. Electric currents generated in the skin. Odor of the human body. Light emanating from a human body.

The advantage of the hair simply as a covering of certain portions of the body; considered as a protection to the head, and, as beard, to the throat. Its elasticity somewhat protective against blows. Its profusion on the head protective against the bites of insects In tropical regions, and its distribution on the eyelashes protective against fine particles of foreign matter. The hair's function of a certain degree of elimination of effete products of the body.

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Felicity Loveheart has written a lot about health and beauty including her articles on: nodular acne treatment, effective acne treatment and herbal acne treatment.

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