consequences of keeping it in an uncleanly condition.


After saying so much of the general importance of obeying the laws of
life and health, it seems, at first view, almost unnecessary to go
farther into particulars than I have already done And yet I feel
somewhat inclined to do so for two reasons. First, because I find
several considerable errors in the advice given to young women in some
of our young women's books, in matters pertaining to their physical
improvement, which I should rejoice to be able to correct. Secondly,
because, that in a work from me, information of this kind will probably
be expected.

And yet it seems quite common-place to advise a young woman on the
subject of cleanliness in general; and still more so, to speak to her
on the subject of personal neatness. A young woman wanting in neatness!
At the first view of the case, such a thing seems almost impossible.

Would that it were so! Would that our daughters and sisters--the
daughters and sisters of America, especially--were so far apprized of
this indispensable requisite, as to need no monitor on the subject!
But, unhappily, it is not so. Very far from it, on the contrary.

No person in tolerable health, male or female, seems to me to be
entitled to be considered as neat--truly so--who does not wash the
surface of the whole body in water, daily. But are there not multitudes
who pass for models of neatness and cleanliness, who do not perform
this work for themselves half a dozen times--nay, once--a year?

That I may not be regarded as wholly ultra on this subject, because