d of them easily.

=Keeping the Skin Clean.=--The amount of dead matter carried out by the
sweat on to the skin every day is equal to a mass as large as your
thumb. Dust also works through the clothing and sticks fast to the moist
skin. For this reason every one should wash the whole body once or twice
each week. The feet should be washed oftener as they become more soiled.

Many persons take a bath every day. A cold bath taken just after
rising in the morning wakes up the nerves, makes the heart work
better, and gives health and strength to the whole body. Afterward,
the body should be well rubbed with a coarse towel. The bath may be
taken by lying in a tub of water or by rubbing the body over quickly
with a wet sponge. A hot bath is best for cleansing the skin. A warm
bath makes one sleepy and should, therefore, be taken only at bedtime.

_The hands should always be well washed before handling food._ Persons
neglecting to do this have caused much sickness because of the disease
germs on their hands. One hundred and fifty persons were given typhoid
fever in one city in Massachusetts by a man who handled milk without
washing his hands. Dirt and disease are companions. You must be clean
if you would be healthy.

=The Kidneys.=--The sweat glands do not take out of the blood one
quarter as much waste matter as the kidneys. These are two bodies longer
than the finger and more than twice as wide, and having the shape of a
bean. One lies on either side of the backbone below the liver.

The blood coming to the kidneys is full of waste and dead matter
picked up from all parts of the body. This is passed out through the
thin walls of the thousands of little blood tubes into the many tiny
tubes of the kidneys.

[Illustration: FIG. 49.--The blood tubes in a piece of skin as large
as the head of a pin.]

Water is required to keep the body clean within as well as without.
For this reason you should drink more than a quart of water daily. A
glass or two of water drunk a half hour before meals cleanses and
rouses to action the digestive organs.

=Alcohol and the Skin.=--The skin of those who use much beer or whisky
often becomes rough, red, and pimply. Any alcoholic drink is likely to
injure the skin because it may hinder good digestion. The drunkard has
a red nose and a dark-colored skin. This is because alcohol weakens
the walls of the blood tubes and lets them become gorged with blood.

If a person takes a drink only once