HEALTH is one of the [requisites to the making up of a fine complexion. A sickly plant commands our care, ■ but not our admiration. So with the individual. A buoyant step and healthful glow on cheek and lip, are irresistible in their power over us. To possess these the greatest care should be taken. Plenty of nutritious food well cooked and at regular intervals. Exercise in the open air. Early hours for rest and sleep are all absolutely necessary. Avoid medicine of a drastic and debilitating nature, and in the spring, when circulation is clogged and digestion sluggish, take a tablespoonful of French charcoal mixed carefully in water or honey before meals for several days, following this each evening with a teaspoonful of extract of dandelion; or take the same dose of charcoal at night, follow it with a large spoonful of finely minced onion. There is no greater purifier in the medical pharmacy than charcoal. In the spring of the year, eat freely of cabbage, lettuce and all herbaceous food. If this diet is accompanied and followed by the requisite amount of bathing, it will work wonders with the most stubborn complexion and give health and elasticity to the sluggish frame. If spring tonics are prescribed, never take them until after charcoal has been used as above directed, when the system will be found in a state to be benefited by their use. The following, from a reliable author, will be found excellent.

Blood Purifier

½ ounce of spruce bark, ½ ounce of sarsaparilla bark. ½ ounce of burdock root. 1 gallon of water.

½ ounce of hemlock bark. ½ ounce of dandelion root. ½ ounce of yellow dock root.

Boil one-half hour, strain hot and add 10 drops of oil of spruce and sassafras mixed. When cold add ½ pound of brown sugar and ½ cupful of yeast. Let stand two hours in a jar covered tight, then bottle. Use this freely; iced it is a pleasant drink.

Lemons are excellent spring correctives. Press the juice of 1 lemon in a glass of water and drink one-half one quarter of an hour before breakfast. This may be repeated before retiring, sweeten very slightly or not at all. Never make practice of taking the lemon juice pure without the addition of water, it is too strong for the coatings of the stomach.

Baths

Hot baths will be found by almost every one more invigorating as well as more cleansing than cold. Their effect is cooling and refreshing in the hottest day. Use water hot as the skin can bear and plenty of good soap. A heavy flannel or hair cloth wash-cloth is desirable, to be followed by friction with a hair cloth glove or a flesh brush. This will do away with the possibility of colds. Evening is usually the preferable time for a bath. Take twice a week in winter and once every day in summer; this should not be neglected. The winter flannels, especially if they are slept in, should be changed twice a week. A bath of merely tepid water will be found enervating and enfeebling. If the hot bath is thought so at' times, follow it by a quick plunge into cold water or a sponging off with the same, using the flesh brush afterward. Ten minutes is sufficient time in which to take a bath. A bath should never be taken until at least two hours after a meal or one hour before it.

Cold bathing should never be indulged in if [the [least chill follows the act. An instant glow should be the result, otherwise discontinue at once. A sponge bath answers every purpose besides giving less trouble. It should be remembered to use soap with the bath.