HEALTH HINTS ! BY JOSEPH POWER

HEALTH   HINTS !

There’s a skin without and skin within,

A covering skin and a lining akin;

But the skin within is the skin without,

Doubled inward and carried completely throughout.

The palate, the nostrils, the windpipe and throat,

Are all of them lined with this inner coat,

Which through every part is made to extend,

Lungs, liver, and bowels from end to end.

The outside skin is a marvelous plan

For exuding the dregs of the flesh of man;

While the inner extracts from the food and the air

What is needed the waste of the flesh to repair.

Too much brandy, whisky, or gin

Is apt to disorder the skin within

While, if dirty and dry, the skin without

Refuses to let the sweat come out.

Good people all, have a care of your skin,

Both that without and that within;

To the first give plenty of water and soap,

To the last, Tittle else but water, we hope.

But always be very particular where

You get your water, your food, and your air;

For if these be tainted or rendered impure,

It will have its effect on blood, be sure.

To food which will ever for you be the best

Is that you like most, and can soonest digest.

All unripe fruit and decaying flesh

Beware of, and fish that is not very fresh.

But of all things the most I would have you beware

Of breathing the poison of once-breathed air.

When in bed, whether out or at home you may be,

Always open the windows and let it go free.

With clothing and exercise keep yourselves warm,

And change your clothes quickly if caught in a storm,

For a cold caught by chilling the outside skin

Flies at once to the delicate lining within.

All you who thus kindly take care of your skin,

And attend to its wants without and within,

Need never of cholera feel and fears,

And your skin may last you a hundred years.

                                                                        JOSEPH  POWER