CHAPTER XVIII.

THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE FACE.

HE face should be shielded from fierce, inclement blasts of

THE

cold air, and also from rays of a sun so hot as to blister. Excepting fungi, every living thing requires for health and beauty profuse heat, air, and light, and the skin requires these abundantly, but for beauty within certain fixed bounds. The complexion of an old sea-captain is healthy, but butternut in color, and tough as to integument; yet one may have quite as healthy a skin without those characteristics.

In the case of any blemish on the face, such as is produced by the presence of inappropriate hairs, small moles, or nævi, commonly called "mother's marks," they can be easily removed without scarring by means of the electric needle. When they there amount to an aneurism by anastomosis, or intricate blending of blood-vessels, scarring sometimes following their removal, it had better then not be attempted. Elsewhere, even such nævi ought to be removed, for, if injured, they often, with increase of years, form an ugly, sloughing sore. On the face, nævi, if small and superficial, ought to be removed by the electric needle, and can be, without the result of scarring. Mr. W. Beatty, of London, has lately claimed great success in their removal by the application of arsenic. The preparation employed is the ordinary liquor arsenicalis of the British Pharmacopoeia. The nævus is painted with it, with a camel's hair pencil, every night and morning, until it ulcerates, a cure being effected in from three to five weeks.

Incidentally, we wish to impress upon the reader that moles and other abnormal skin surfaces sometimes become the seat of papilloma which may degenerate into epithelioma,-a malignant growth. It is, therefore, advisable for every one having such a

growth to watch it carefully, lest, as often happens, some trifling injury to it may cause serious disease. The physician is the proper person to whom to submit the case for treatment. Often these growths need immediate extirpation, which is quickly accomplished by the electric needle.

Sunburn, and freckles, if not of long standing, are quite amenable to treatment with tincture of benzoin and water, one teaspoonful of the tincture to a cupful of cold water. Carefully avoiding getting the mixture into the eyes, bathe the parts for ten minutes morning and night. Let the face then become almost dry after bathing it, and while it is in a slightly moist condition dry it gently with a piece of soft, old linen. A good preparation for the removal of freckles is the following paste

Apply the mixture at night, before retiring, and remove the residue in the morning with a little powdered borax and sweet-oil. The following recipe is useful for chapped lips :

When mixed, boil them down to the volume of pint, and then add to the mixture 2 ounces of glycerin, scenting with 2 or 3 drops of oil of roses.

This preparation is good, not only for chapped and cracked lips, but for chapped hands. It also makes a very good dressing for the hair.

The following is a convenient preparation, because it takes a solid form, and can be used in small quantities, as needed:

To prepare it for molding from these ingredients, cut the gelatin up into little bits, in a wide-mouthed vial, and, after adding to it the fluidounce of water, melt the mixture in a hot-water bath (the receptacle holding the mixture placed in another receptacle containing the water, to which heat is applied). When the mixture is melted, add the glycerin, previously warmed. Then shake the mixture thoroughly up, add to it a drop or two of oil of roses, pour it into molds, and put it away in a cool place until it sets. When removed from the molds, wrap it up in paraffin-paper, such as the confectioners use. In using it, first moisten the skin with water, and then apply it.

We have indicated from the first, that the most cosmetic things in the world for the skin are fresh, cool water, bland soap, and gentle friction, and have expressed our disapproval of artificial modes of beautifying the complexion, or, rather, not of beautifying it, but of concealing it from view. We have carefully pointed out that a wholesome, handsome complexion can come only of the aggregated effects of fresh air, exercise, good food and clothing, and generally good habits of life. At the same time we recognize that there are occasions when one has need of suppressing summarily the glistening of the face from perspiration, and also that, do what we will, there are persons who will not heed our words of wisdom. Recognizing these facts, we philosophically resign ourselves to communicating such information as to safe artificial cosmetics as will include those of which the reader may desire to know.

The following, it will be seen, is composed of very simple ingredients, with whose nature every one is acquainted. It forms a powder for the face, which, if desired of flesh color, can be so tinted by the addition of 3 grains of powdered carmine :

Scent with rose.

For flesh color, add 3 grains of carmine.

The best rouge of which we know, for fineness of quality and for facility of application, is that contained in Madame Lowenberg's pastilles de Florence. The pastilles are sometimes dissolved in rose-water, and the lotion thus made is applied to the face. This mode of using them produces the vulgar effect of a painted face, which, it need hardly be said, is an effect far from respectable. To avoid this, the pastille should be powdered, a piece of fine flannel dipped into the powder, and the face treated as follows, à la français: Pass the flannel gently over the forehead and temples, avoiding the eyebrows, then over the nose, then over the upper lip, then over the chin and around the mouth, omitting throughout to touch the cheeks or the parts under the eyes, the two points which do not need re-inforcing with color, and, if so re-inforced, revealing its presence as being artificial. After having delicately passed the flannel over the parts described, pass over the same parts a soft piece of fine linen. The effect will be far more natural than that produced by powdering the substance on the skin, or smearing it dissolved over the skin, both which modes of using the pastilles, especially the latter, produce a highly unnatural appearance. Flecks of powder that may have fallen on the eyebrows or the eyelashes can be removed with a piece of moistened linen. A brunette uses the pastilles of a creamy-pink tint, and a blonde of a roseate one. For bare neck and shoulders, Lubin's violet powder is a famous preparation.

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CHAPTER XIX.

THE HANDS.

[EXT to the face the hand has, of all the members of the body, the most expression. And like all things capable in action, it has expression even in repose. Its physiognomical traits, so to speak, may or may not have been developed by education; they are apparent and significant without it, almost from the beginning, from nature alone. Its range of expression in repose is great, and its range of expression in activity exceeds all but the artist's capacity to depict. Sully used to say that, such was the beauty, grace, and diversity in the hands of a number of figures in a certain foreign painting representing the calling of St. Matthew, he had for his own instruction repeatedly copied them.

Of two pairs of hands of which neither has ever done a stitch of work, a good observer recognizes which are the capable ones. And when we say work, we do not mean mere work, except as special work performed in conformity with the particular quality of brain. If any one choose to consider the fact significant merely as to relative muscular endowment, let him observe beyond, that, independent of the capacity of brute force exhibited by any hand, it reveals the presence of a more or less highly gifted nervous organization. One does not find, even before toil has marred symmetry, elegantly-shaped hands as the possession of a clodhopper, nor such hands as his as the possession of a statesman. Nature is harmonious in her works, from the masses of her sculpture, down to the pettiest details. Pinched nostrils consort with imperfect lungs, as full nostrils consort with fine breathing apparatus. Refinement of organization, without special muscularity, is conjoined with delicacy and