The self-regulating skin: historical folly and the necessity of intervention

“ Because as he continued to reflect he worked furiously, Jennie saw in him the being whom the lingo of the hour had taught her to call a caveman. In the motion-picture theaters she generally frequented, cavemen struggled with vampires in duels of passion and strength. Jennie longed to be loved by one of this race; and a caveman who came to her with violet eyes and a sweeping brown mustache possessed an appeal beyond the prehistoric. In spite of the challenge in her smile and the daring angle at which she held her chin, she waited in violent emotion for what he would say next. ”

“ I soled my shoes with wood, which I cut from a tree, and fitted to the upper-leather; and when this was worn out, I supplied it with the skins of yahoos dried in the sun. I often got honey out of hollow trees, which I mingled with water, or eat with my bread. No man could more verify the truth of these two maxims, 'That nature is very easily satisfied;' and, 'That necessity is the mother of invention.' I enjoyed perfect health of body, and tranquillity of mind ”

“ It never fails to cure Scrofula, Scurvy, Scrofulous Sores, Glandular Swellings and Sores, Cancerous Ulcers, Bad Legs, Secondary Symptoms, Syphilis, Piles, Rheumatism, Gout, Dropsy, Blackheads or Pimples on the Face, Sore Eyes, Eruptions of the Skin and Blood, and Skin Diseases of every description.
On the label it was stated:
The Mixture is pleasant to the taste, and warranted free from anything injurious to the most delicate constitution of either sex, which all Pills and most Medicines sold for the above diseases contain. ”

“ Remember that “The Ladies' Book of Useful Information” does not teach the use of paint and powder, which is injurious to the skin, but how to make the cheek glow with health, and the neck, arms, and hands to rival the lily in whiteness. It teaches how to cure Greasy Skin, Freckles, Wrinkles, Pimples, Blackheads, Crow's-feet, Blotches, Face Grubs, Tan, Sunburn, Chapped Hands, Sore Lips, etc. It teaches how to cure and prevent redness and roughness, and to make the skin soft, smooth, white and delicate, producing a perfectly healthy and natural appearance. ”

“ As long as possible, our organisms are so obliging as to open and close the sluices themselves without our cognizance, provided that our regulating apparatus is in order, that we are not ill. It is only when our good servant the skin, under certain conditions, has come to an end of its powers, that we begin to feel that we must lend our aid. ”

“ Those who for month after month, and even for year after year, do not cleanse and invigorate the skin by frequent baths, followed by brisk friction of the skin, lose the good offices of a very active organ of regeneration, and cause their blood to be in a state very favorable for the production of disease from slight causes. ”

“ Uncleanliness of Dress.—Uncleanly attire creates conditions favorable to disease. Clothing worn too long at a time becomes saturated with the excretions and exhalations of the body, and, by preventing the free transpiration from the surface of the skin, induces oppression of the physical powers and mental inactivity. ”

“ But that man has chronic scabies whom the wantonness of the flesh without cease overmasters. For in scabies the violent heat of the bowels is drawn to the skin; whereby lechery is rightly designated, since, if the heart’s temptation shoots forth into action, it may be truly said that violent internal heat breaks out into scabies of the skin: and it now wounds the body outwardly, because, while sensuality is not repressed in thought, it gains the mastery also in action. ”

“ Wrinkles and looseness of the skin depend chiefly on the attenuation of the cutis or true skin and the reduction in the bulk of the underlying surfacial portions of the body. They cannot be regarded as a disease of the skin; but are the result of long continued bad health, anxiety and study, and of general emaciation and old age. Cleanliness, nutritious food, vigorous outdoor exercise, agreeable occupation of the mind, and an equable and happy temper, retard their formation. ”

“ Foremost in consideration must be the subject of cleanliness. Dirty and coarse hands are no less marks of slothfulness and lowbreeding than clean and delicate hands are of refinement and gentility. To promote softness and whiteness of the skin, mild emollient soaps, or those abounding in oil or fat, should alone be adopted for common use; by which means the tendency to contract chaps and chilblains, and roughness from drying winds, will also be lessened. The coarse, strong kinds of soap, those abounding in alkali, should be rejected, as they tend to render the skin rough, dry and brittle. ”

“ Were women trained in the knowledge of elementary truths about the visual function and guided by them, they would see that their children did not assume those positions in study that conduce to short-sightedness and curved spines; if they carefully studied the nature and functions of the skin, they would learn to insist upon the necessity of daily purification by the bath. Woman might also, and ought to, learn all that health requires in the construction and maintenance of the house: to maintain economically within it an equable temperature at all seasons ”

“ Dry the skin gently with a soft towel, and when quite dry, with the rough towel or flesh brush rub the body briskly four or five minutes till the skin is all aglow. The chest and abdomen need the principal rubbing. The roughness of the towel should be accommodated to the condition of the skin. Enough friction, however, must be given to produce at least a gentle warmth, indicative of the reaction necessary to prevent subsequent chill or languor. An invalid will find it exceedingly beneficial if a stout, vigorous person produce the reaction by rubbing with the hands. ”

“ Sometimes the disturbance may be traced to a checking of the perspiration; but more frequently to peculiar conditions of the atmosphere, especially in large cities. Such diseases are most prevalent in humid weather, when the days are hot and the nights cold and moist. Especial attention should at such times be paid to the diet. If an attack comes on, ascertain, if possible, its cause. You can thereby aid your physician, and, if the cause be removable, can protect the rest of the household. If the limbs are cold, take a hot bath, followed by a thorough rubbing. ”

“ The whole of the morphia can hardly be taken up instantaneously, and it is probable that, if a ligature were at once placed on the limb, an incision made through the skin at the seat of the injection, and the part freely washed, or even freely cauterized, the amount of morphia absorbed might be reduced to so small a degree that it would be possible to antagonize it, and thus save the patient's life. ”

“ THE project recently initiated for establishing in New York on an adequate scale a hospital for the treatment of skin-diseases is of great importance to this community. It has been long understood that medical progress can only be best facilitated by the concentration of thought upon special groups of diseases, and that for this purpose special institutions are demanded. ”

“ What room here for idealization.earnest fact, or in the seeking for the outward image of beauty:—to undo the devil's work, to restore to the body the grace and the power which inherited disease has destroyed, to [Page 112] return to the spirit the purity, and to the intellect the grasp that they had in Paradise. Now, first of all, this work, be it observed is in no respect a work of imagination. Wrecked we are, and nearly all to pieces; but that little good by which we are to redeem ourselves is to be got out of the old wreck, beaten about and full of sand though it be ”

“ He supposes it to be “the height of absurdity and folly, that there should have been sin in order that sin might not be; inasmuch as pride is itself, of course, a sin.” As if a sore were not attended with pain, and an operation did not produce pain, that pain might be taken away by pain. If we had not experienced any such treatment, but were only to hear about it in some parts of the world where these things had never happened, we might perhaps use this man’s words, and say, It is the height of absurdity that pain should have been necessary in order that a sore should have no pain. ”

“ Of course you can not pare down the skin of the head and feet with the draw-shave, and these must be treated with the knife and scraper. The skin of the head of every mammal must be pared down and scraped particularly thin all over, especially the eyelids, lips, and nostrils, so that when these parts are backed up with clay you can model them into exquisitely fine form and expression. If you slight the skin of the head, good-by to all expression ”

“ Varnishing the beak and legs is a further improvement. An artistic effect is obtained by considering the nature and habits of the specimen, and studying its natural poses. For instance, a pheasant struts with a straight neck, a swan sits on the water with its neck gracefully arched.
The arsenical soap above mentioned can be procured at any chemist’s, or made as follows: camphor, five drachms; arsenic, four ounces; white soap, four ounces; flaked lime, four ounces; mix with a little water into a soft paste.
Before using the arsenical soap, be careful to remove every scrap of meat from the skin. ”

“ And, to speak freely, it is but drawing a skin over a wound, and giving it a face of a soundness; when there lies filth and purulence within, which will another time break out with more pain and greater danger. ”

“ But why did He not first address Himself to the cure of the paralytic, but said, “Son! be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee?” He did this very wisely. For it is a habit with physicians to destroy the originating cause of the malady before they remove the malady itself. Often for example when the eyes are distressed by some evil humour and corrupt discharge, the physician, abandoning any treatment of the disordered vision, turns his attention to the head, where the root and origin of the infirmity is: even so did Christ act: He represses first of all the source of the evil. ”

“ Certes, skin-foulness is as nothing compared to bowel-filth, and a cathartic soap often lifts, as no skin-cleaning does, an oppressive incubus from the presence of organic decomposing matter in the intestines, which is death itself when a little of it finds its way into the blood. ”

“ One may be clean superficially, that is one may scrub enough and yet vitally be very far from clean. We know, although it is of the greatest assistance to keep the skin free and vigorous so that it is able to do its part of the house-cleaning work for our systems, that vital cleanliness, clean, strong, internal organs performing their work with the vigor of well-constructed engines, uninjured [150] by foolish clothing, unharmed by impure food, keen for opportunity to grow and be vigorous—we know, I say that that cleanliness is more important than skin cleanliness. ”

“ In diseases, for instance, of the body, when some corrupt humour spreads unseen beneath the pores, before all the unhealthy secretion has been detected on the skin, they who treat diseases by the rules of art do not use such medicines as would harden the flesh, but they wait till all that lurks within comes out upon the surface, and then, with the disease unmasked, apply their remedies. When once, then, the disease of evil had fixed itself in the nature of mankind, He, the universal Healer, waited for the time when no form of wickedness was left still hidden in that nature. ”

“ The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie. ”

“ As an indifference cherished, or left to atrophy, becomes an emptiness, to this extent he had learned to become empty of Nicole, serving her against his will with negations and emotional neglect. One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or of the sight of an eye. ”