As a part of this system of life culture, I must draw your attention to the value and purpose of bathing the body. The bath has a double purpose - to cleanse the skin of the impurities excreted by the pores and to increase the circulation of the blood in and through the tiny veins that lie just below the skin.

You may not know that the skin breathes as well as the lungs. The skin of the average body contains about seven million tiny little holes called pores. These pores are the outlets from the most perfect drainage system known. These little canals if placed end to end would reach about twenty-eight miles. It is through these pores or canals that a great quantity of the impurities and poisonous waste matter is eliminated from our bodies. Whenever this elimination is stopped the immediate result is the raising of the temperature and in an hour or so the person is suffering from what is called a "Cold!" When so affected people think they have taken a cold from being in a draught. The complete congestion or closing of the pores is a very serious matter. It has been demonstrated conclusively that if a man's or animal's body is varnished over, thus closing all the pores, that death follows very quickly. The waste matter is forced back into the blood and poisons it. The skin needs the assistance of the oxygen in the air to assist it in doing its work. Deprived of air, it cannot work. Remember this, that the only cause of colds, is the congestion of the perspiratory ducts, commonly known as pores. This condition may be brought about by the sudden exposure to a draught of cold air when the pores are open and in the act of throwing off perspiration. But the most common cause of this congestion is overeating. The food that cannot be digested is absorbed into the blood to be carried to an outlet from which it may be thrown off. If the pores are not clean and free from previous waste matter, they become so crowded they cannot work and the result is congestion and a cold. A cold is a warning to you of what is going wrong. To correct the trouble, make every effort to assist the pores. Warm water used inside and out will bring relief most quickly.

You cannot overestimate the importance of keeping the skin clean and free from all excretions. The amount of impurities excreted by the skin depends upon the quantity of waste matter taken into the stomach. If one is careful in matters of diet, the pores will not have so much work to do and it will require less effort on your part to keep the skin clean.

Few people know just how often the body should be bathed in order to keep it clean, and many more have no idea that a bath is taken for any other purpose than to wash off the dust or dirt that has accumulated from external causes. To those I say, we bathe to assist Nature in its process of eliminating poisonous waste matter, which, if retained, would cause disease and death.

Every person in average health should take a cool bath every morning or every other morning. This bath should be taken immediately after the morning stretching exercise. It should be taken quickly and the water should be at a temperature of about sixty to seventy degrees. It will then act as an invigorating tonic, refreshing body and brain.

Persons having a delicate constitution should use water about eighty degrees, when they begin taking the morning baths, and gradually reduce its temperature each day until they enjoy the cold water.

The best way to take the cool bath is to wet a bath mit or bath towel and rub firmly and quickly a section of the body and then dry it by briskly rubbing with a rough bath towel before wetting more of the body. Bathe about one-fifth or one-quarter of the body at a time. A little sea salt added to the water will prove very invigorating to the skin and the circulation and prevent you becoming or feeling the cold. It is best that the body should be entirely nude during the process of the bath. Have pure air in the room, but do not stand directly in a draught. Act quickly and make every move count. From three to five minutes is enough time to spend in taking a cool bath. Dress quickly and you will feel a warm glow spread all over the body. You will have discovered a new pleasure; a cool bath.

A warm bath to cleanse the skin may be taken once a week. The water should not be hot and you should not remain in it for more than seven to ten minutes, otherwise it will be more harmful than beneficial. Hot water is debilitating, it relaxes the pores and drives the blood from the surface of the body to the center, therefore, it should be followed by a cool bath, before drying the skin. Remember the rubbing of the skin Is the most beneficial part of the bath, whether it be a warm or cold bath. In the warm bath use pure soap, a flesh brush and the juice of half a lemon in a bath tub half full of water. The lemon has wonderful cleansing properties. Do not allow cheap soaps to touch your skin. Pure castile is the best to use. Most all other soaps contain animal fat, which is injurious to the skin. Avoid medicated soaps. Their value is doubtful and they, are very often injurious. Rain water is desirable when it can be had. When hard water must be used, add a little borax. This will soften it. In the evening, just before retiring, is the best time to take the warm bath. Then get right into bed and you will quickly fall asleep. A bath should never be taken sooner than two hours after eating a meal or it will retard digestion. Special attention should be paid to keeping the feet absolutely clean. This may seem a simple matter, but it cannot be done, unless they are washed with soap and water once a day. The evening is the best time for bathing them. A large amount of impurity is daily drained through the large pores in the soles of the feet. This poisonous waste must be removed or it prevents the further waste being eliminated, which, in many cases, is absorbed back into the system and causes sickness.

Many people take Turkish, hot air, vapor and other sweat baths, but such baths are not to be advised. One should live so as not to need such stringent treatment. Where the system is very much filled up with waste through intemperate eating and drinking, the sweat bath will greatly assist in its removal and prevent sickness. Those who follow the instructions given in the previous lessons will have no need for any form of sweat bath. They are especially dangerous to people who suffer from an affection of the heart. The Turkish bath is a device made by man to aid people to live for a time and indulge in unhygienic eating and drinking. It has no counterpart in Nature and is not according to its laws. If you want to live one hundred years and enjoy health and vigor, avoid the sweat baths by avoiding the cause which makes their use necessary.

The purpose of these lessons is to teach you how to live so as to avoid disease and prolong the organized life of the body. Therefore, you should aim to think, breathe, exercise, sleep, eat and drink so that the blood will at all times be preserved in purity. Therein lies the secret of prolonged youth and its attendant pleasures.

In giving your attention to the general cleanliness of the body, do not overlook the teeth. Few people fully appreciate the value of their teeth, until they have lost them. The teeth can be preserved by the same law that repairs and rebuilds the rest of the body. They should be cleaned with distilled water and a little lemon juice after each meal, on arising and before retiring. Use a good quality of brush for the purpose. A little chalk used once a day will aid in keeping them white. Tartar will not accumulate and destroy the teeth, if lemon juice is used in the water they are washed in. Drugs taken to cure disease have destroyed more teeth than all other causes combined. What do you suppose drugs that are strong enough to destroy the teeth, the hardest part of the system, do to the delicate inner organs? Is it any wonder that drugs kill?

The hair also needs a share of attention. A healthy growth of hair on the head is a crown of glory. The hair adds to or detracts from beauty more than any other one feature. Hair that is naturally oily should be washed every two weeks, but hair that is dry and brittle should not be washed so often, a daily massage being much better for it. To correctly massage the scalp, use the finger tips and rub the roots of the hair briskly in all directions, move the scalp so as to loosen it from the skull. After a few treatments you will observe a natural oil on the hair and by continuing them it will take on a bright sheen that will enhance its beauty. It will show life instead of lying straight and dead. If the hair is thin and dry, dip the tips of the fingers in olive oil and then massage the scalp. A new growth of hair will soon appear. If the hair is thick but oily use sea salt dissolved in water in place of the oil. The results will repay you. In washing the hair use warm water and pure soap followed by pure cold water, and dry the hair in the sunshine. Never wash the hair until you have sunshine to dry it in. Rub as dry as possible with a towel and then shake it in the rays of the sun until it is dry. The sun will add to the hair new life. If these simple directions are followed, in ad dition to the regular system of hygienic living, you will have a head of perfect hair when you celebrate your hundredth birthday.

Two other baths I will mention here as being of special value in prolonging life, are the sun bath and the air bath. The body needs to be admitted to both the oxygen of the air and the rays of the sun. The air bath can be taken to best advantage while taking the morning physical exercises. Take them with the body nude that it may breathe in oxygen through every pore. An air bath should not be taken without some kind of exercise, for the temperature of the body might be lowered so as to cause a congestion of the pores and a cold would be the result. By the exercise warm blood is sent to the surface and this counteracts the influence of the cold that may be in the atmosphere. A sun bath may be taken at any hour that one can spare while the sun is up. It is best to take it between 9 a. m. and 3 p. m. The force of the rays are then more beneficial. I will explain more on this subject in a special lesson on renewing youth.

That you may live one hundred years in the possession of health, youth and beauty, it is necessary that you drop all false ideas and depend upon the practical vital action of Nature as instructed in this course of lessons. You cannot, of course, accomplish everything in a week or a month, but by keeping your mind's eye firmly fixed on the ideal, you will make steady and permanent progress.