it, and one utterly destructive to their beauty,
strength, and usefulness.

To remove stains and discolorations of the nails, a little lemon juice
or vinegar and water is the best application. Should this fail, a few
grains of salt of sorrel, oxalic acid, or chloride of lime, each
diluted with warm water, may be applied, care being taken to
thoroughly rinse the hands in clean water, without soap, afterwards.
Occasionally a little pumice stone, in impalpable powder, or powdered
cuttlefish bone, putty powder (polisher's peroxide of tin), may be
used along with water and a piece of wash-leather, flannel, or the
nailbrush, for the same purpose. The frequent use of any of these
substances is, however, injurious to the healthy growth, strength, and
permanent beauty of the nails. The common practice of scraping the
surface of the nails cannot be too strongly censured, as it causes
them to become weak and distorted. Blows on the nails, and, indeed,
violence to them in any form, also distorts and marks them.

The ladies of Oriental nations commonly dye the nails; and amongst
many savage tribes the same practice is adopted, and is not confined
to the gentler sex. Amongst Western Europeans, and Americans, white
and regularly-formed nails are alone esteemed.

=Chapped Hands= are common among persons with a languid circulation, who
are continually "dabbling" in water during cold weather, and
particularly among those with a scrofulous taint, who, without the
last, expose their ungloved hands to bleak, cold winds. The best
preventives, as well as remedies, are the use of warm gloves out of
doors, and the application, night and morning, of a little glycerine,
diluted with twice its weight of water, or a little cold cream,
spermaceti cerate, salad oil, or any other simple unguent or oil,
which should be well rubbed in, the superfluous portion being removed
with a towel. This treatment will not only preserve the hands from the
effects of cold and damp, but also tend to render them soft and white.
Deep chaps which have degenerated into sores should be kept constantly
covered with a piece of lint wetted with glycerine or spread with
spermaceti ointment, the part being at the same time carefully
preserved from dirt, cold, and wind. It is said that a once favorite
actress, celebrated for the beauty of her hands, even when in the
"sere and yellow leaf," covered them nightly with the flare of a calf
or lamb, with the fat attached, over whic