Description: A play on Cicero’s idiom “While there’s life there’s hope”, the film uses intertitles of humorous verse to make its point about the importance of cleanliness to its young audience. “It is most important to be CLEAN, outside as well as in, Your health will suffer without doubt if you neglect your skin.”

Thirty-four verses are illustrated by footage that is either comic or instructive. “The elephant enjoys a bath, It cleans the dirt away” is illustrated by of elephants bathing at a zoo. “The monkey, too, makes use of soap to freshen up his ‘phiz’, I’m sure you’d like to copy him, And have a face like his”. A monkey sucks the water out of a sponge in a tin wash-basin. “The horse is groomed when work is done, and has a skin like silk.” Men groom shire horses. “The cow is washed before the man sits on the stool to milk”. A man cleans a cow’s udders.

The film then goes on to explain how skin works: “Three yards of skin, we humans have You’d better know the worst, the functions of the skin are three, PROTECTION is the first. The tortoise shell is really skin - Its head pops in its hole”. By illustration a tortoise pops his head out of his shell. “Perhaps you never knew before, a policeman has a soul.” Bare feet, presumably a policeman’s, are shown and the toes wiggle. “The beast is well protected by the hardness of its shell, The policeman has to walk a lot his sole is thick as well”. A policeman walks down the street. “Our finger-nails like tortoise-shell are THICKENED SKIN - not food – an illustration of two hands is shown, one with bitten nails, the other without – “And if you bite your finger-nails Your habits are not good. A young man carrying a basket chews on his nails. “Another thickening of the skin, goes by the name of ‘corn’, Tight boots and shoes compress the toes And such should not be worn”. A man shown touching his corns. “The skin is sensitive to TOUCH And so if sight should fail The blind man with his finger tips Can read quite well with Braille”. A blind man sits on the street, reading braille; two women go over to him and put money in his cup. He stops reading, takes off his dark glasses and makes a face as he looks dismissively inside the cup, indicating that he is a conman. “That skin is very sensitive to PAINFUL STIMULI, The carpenter who bangs his thumb will sadly testify”. A man bangs his thumb, instead of a nail, with a hammer. “The skin is also influenced by COLD as well as HEAT, the absent minded smoker’s words are unfit to repeat”. Three men light up cigarettes but one man is looking at a postcard and forgets the lighted match until it singes his fingers. “Now look down through the microscope a section you will see, HAIR FOLLICLES, SEBACEOUS GLANDS and SWEAT GLANDS, there all three.” “Two pints of SWEAT at least a day, come pouring through your skin, this regulates the TEMPERATURE and keeps you cool within”. “The sweat runs down along the hairs or tickles down our hide our picture shows and armpit and a moist perspiring side”. We see a man’s sweating armpit. “Sebaceous glands secret an oil your skin is mackintosh, and that is why soap must be used with water when you wash”. A young man washes with soap in a bath outdoors. “The swan can live in wet all day with neither cold nor cough, The oily feathers keep him dry, They shake the water off.” Two swans swim on a lake. “The PORE may close and so prevent the exit of the oil and then you have a swelling which is not unlike a boil”. A pencil illustration of the back of a bald man’s head shows a boil growing under the skin. “You meet your friend, you bow and smile, you lift your hat and then, she turneth up her pretty nose, she doth not like your wen” A couple meet on the street and shake hands, he raises his hat and there’s a boil on the top of his bald head.

“In Bermondsey a bath may be obtained at a trifling cost, you go without and save the price, but think what you have lost”. A man goes to a Bermondsey bath-house and has a bath. He looks nervous at first but enjoys his bath. “The skin contains a million drains, and you must keep them clean, for dirt will choke a drain as from this picture can be seen”. A man unblocks a drain. “A Turkish bath is taken, In a fascinating way In heated rooms with nothing on You pass the time away.” “An hour or two of this will do Your health no end of good, And if you’ve never tried it then, Most certainly you should”. A man wrapped in towel sitting on a bench in a Turkish bath room has his cigarette lit by another man wrapped in a towel. “And when you’ve finished sweating on a marble slab you climb then you’re soaped and rubbed and massaged till you’re rid of all the grime”. One of the men is soaped and given a massage. “Sometimes you are so perplexed to know what exercise is best. Well, SWIMMING braces up the skin, and broadens out the chest”. Girls dive and swim at a pool. “The finest tonic you can have is OPEN AIR AND SUN and swimming in the open air is good for everyone.” Men dive and swim at a Lido. “You may prefer to emulate the fishes in the sea then part with wealth and gather health, enjoy a swim like me”. A man [Dr Connan?} swims in a river. “I’d wash if I’d been born a fish or e’en a humble frog, Alas! Alas! My habits are the habits of a hog”. The film ends with a pig eating from a wooden crate.