This section is from the book "The Young Wife's Cook Book", by Hannah Mary Peterson . Also available from Amazon: The Young Wife's Cook Book.
Have a pot of strained honey on your wash-stand, and every time you wash your hands, dip your wet finger into the honey and rub it over your hands while wet. Wipe them very dry and the skin will be soft even in the coldest weather. A few-drops of glycerine rubbed on the hands daily will make them soft.
Take some dry Indian meal, wet your hands and rub them with it, then wash them with soap and tepid water. This is as good and much cheaper than sand soap.
Mix a quarter of a pound of unsalted hog's lard, which has been washed in water and then in rose-water, with the yolks of two new-laid eggs, and a large spoonful of honey. Add as much fine oatmeal, or almond paste, as will work into a paste.
Mix half an ounce of glycerine and two scruples of borax in half a pint of boiling water. Use morning and evening.
In order to preserve the hands soft and white, they should always be washed in warm water with fine soap, and carefully dried with a moderately coarse towel, being well rubbed every time to insure a brisk circulation, than which nothing can be more effectual in promoting a transparent and soft appearance. Almond paste is of essential use in preserving the delicacy of the hands. It is made thus: Blanch and beat up four ounces of bitter almonds; add to them three ounces of lemon-juice, three ounces of almond oil, and a little weak spirits of wine. The following is a serviceable pomade for rubbing the hands on retiring to rest: Take two ounces of sweet almonds, beat with three drachms of white wax, and three drachms of spermaceti; put up carefully in rose-water.
Tincture of myrrh, one drachm; diluted sulphuric acid, two drachms; spring water, four ounces. Mix. First cleanse with white soap, then dip the finger into the wash.
 
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