hats-unless they are very much better than your own-nor use public brushes or combs, unless you can wash and clean them first, although so prevalent have clean heads and scalps become, it is doubtful whether those in the better class of places, such as hotels and Pullman-cars, are really a source of much danger. The most dangerous agencies for the transmission of scalp diseases and insect pests are barber shops, which are peculiarly exposed to infection. They should be compelled by law to keep combs, brushes, chairs, and tables scrupulously clean, dipping brushes in hot water and rubbing them briskly upon a clean towel or toilet-paper after each use, and fumigating them thoroughly every night. There is no need of any morbid cleanliness or perpetual apprehension of infection of the scalp-because we have another and, on the whole, more reliable line of defense yet in reserve, even if some prowling parasite should wander into our hair. This is that if we keep our scalps healthy and vigorous, any stray bug which may get upon them will feel utterly out of place. Indeed, in the opinion of experts, most parasitic diseases and infections of the scalp are rather signs of low bodily vitality and impoverished blood than serious dangers in themselves. Heads of hair which are falling into the sere and yellow leaf in life's August or even its July, frequently have dandruff or some other form of germ-disease of the scalp; but the dandruff-germs are mere vultures— parasites preying upon the dying scalpand though you can easily kill them by mild germicides, you will not, alas! stop, nor even much delay, the progress of baldness by so doing. Indeed, it would be more correct to say that the baldness was the cause of the dandruff, than the dandruff of the baldness. On the other hand, even the worst and most furious parasitic diseases of the scalp, such as ringworm, itch, and mange, though they may leave bald patches, very seldom result in permanent baldness, or even in serious thinning of the hair. In fact, germenemies from without are only permanently dangerous to the hair when they are assisted by traitors under the scalp in the form of poor blood or failing vitality. It has been one of our keenest disappointments in the study of baldness that not even the most rigorous search with the microscope has yet succeeded in discovering what it is that causes baldness, or any germ which plays any weighty part in producing that condition. If all the germs that attack the scalp were at the bottom of the sea, we should still continue to grow bald; so that no germicide, however powerful and searching, can possibly cure baldness. On the other hand, we cannot even say that those who suffer severely from ringworm, itch, or other diseases of the scalp in childhood grow bald in later life any earlier or more frequently than those who have not been so troubled. Broadly speaking, the inexpert and indiscriminate use of germicides upon the scalp will do far more harm than good. Partly because many of them are dangerous poisons and, the scalp unfortunately being situated above the mouth, they are very apt gradually to sift themselves out of the hair and onto the face, the fingers, the food, and so into the mouth. Contrary to popular impression, there is no danger of absorbing them through the scalp-which, indeed, is as poison-proof as rhinoceros-hide-but there is considerable danger of their dusting into the mouth or, in the case of mercurials, being volatilized or evaporated and then inhaled. Nearly all germicides, whether or not poisonous to the body, which are strong enough to produce any effect upon germs are apt to irritate the scalp, and if used too freely or too long, thicken and inflame it so as to create a most favorable soil for new infection to catch in as soon as their use is discontinued. So that the latter stage of the germicide-drenched scalp is worse than the first. On the scalp, as everywhere else, drugs, except in skilled hands, easily do more harm than good. So if you have dandruff, scaliness, itching, or any other disagreeable condition of the scalp which does not yield to regular brushing and scrupulous cleanliness, consult a doctor, and get him to recommend you to a dermatologist or skin specialist, who can tell you exactly what is the cause of the trouble and what is to be done to cure it. Two-thirds of the time it will be found to be some disturbance of your general health, or some wrong method of washing the hair, or the use of too strong soap, insufficient brushing, or some other condition upon which local applications, scalp revivers, hair-tonics, or other humbugs of that description can have no effect what ever. It never occurred to the knights of the middle ages, who stewed their hair in iron pots they called helmets, that hair needs light and air, like other growing things After every inch of the ground has been swept and reswept by the microscope, after every bug that browses upon our cranial mountain-meadows has been caught and labeled, after every form of torture from germ-poisons to electrocution and burning at the stake has been thoroughly tried out upon our luckless scalp, we have finally come to the conclusion that there is only one unguent, one lubricant, which is of any real value upon the hair, and that is elbow-grease; and only one tonic, the brush. If we could condense into one sentence the whole local duty of man toward his hair, of woman toward her crowning glory, it 'would be, "Brush without ceasing." And it must be real brushing; "currying" would be the better word. No mere perfunctory straightening and parting, so that it will present a neat and decorous postmortem-like tidiness of appearance in public, will suffice. It must be curried for at least seven to twelve minutes twice a day, with the same affectionate industry that a farmer's boy devotes to the shining coat of the colt that he is "shaping up" for exhibition at the county fair. I have said that we did not know what was the use of the hair, or what to do to exercise it, but that was only partially correct. The real use of hair is to be brushed, as every small boy discovers, to his disgust. Who can forget Mark Twain's comical dismay when it dawned upon him at the age of eight that every mortal morning of his whole life, he would be compelled to go through the agony of washing his face and brushing his hair-three hundred and sixty-five times every year, and he might live seventy years! The prospect was almost too appalling to be faced. The only known way to stimulate the growth of our own bristles is to bring them into animated conflict with other bristles, particularly those of our friend, the pig. Pigs like to be scratched. during life, and more than return the compliment after they are dead. Brushing does the hair good in several different ways; first by cleaning it and sweeping out of it dust, lint, dirt, and germs of all descriptions. (You can make hair cleaner in both the mechanical and the biological sense by thorough brushing than you can by washing alone, although a combination of the two will give the best result.) Then it helps to spread the natural oil from the glands of the scalp all through the hair, so as to keep it glossy and waterproof. It helps to throw off the dead scales of epithelium which constantly form over the surface of the scalp as upon the rest of the skin, and, most important of all, it increases the flow of blood through the scalp and thus provides more food for the hair-bulbs and nourishes the roots of the hair. Use good brushes; there is no place where it is more ruinous to try to save money than on hair-brushes. A bad brush not only may ruin your hair, but besides will not last half, or in some cases a fourth, as long as a good one. The dollar or two extra paid is anything but wasted. More extrava gant prices are usually due to fancy backs or mountings, not to the quality of the bristles. The best way to test a brush is to use it on the palm of your hand. The bristles of a good brush should be fairly sharp and firm, but perfectly springy and elastic, so that even if considerable pressure is brought to bear, they will not scratch the skin or scalp. If on using the brush on the palm of the hand as you would on your head, it slips flabbily over the surface without taking hold, it is too soft, unless your hair is unusually thin. If, on the other hand, when briskly used, it produces a sensa sixth to a third of an inch below the surface of the scalp, it is obvious that no lotion, oil, drug or any other substance whatever which is applied to the hair itself, or to the surface, can have any real power to stimulate growth. The only way a hair-tonic or stimulant could produce any effect at all, would be by injecting it with a hypodermic needle into the root of each particular hair. The actual results of hundreds of years of experimentation absolutely supports this position, for all of the thousand and one things which we have poured and brushed and rubbed over our devoted scalps, not one of them has tion of burning A healthy, vigorous life that will build up a sound body is the first requisite for those who would seek the path of capillary salvation. Our savage forebears may have abused their hair, but they certainly had plenty of it and scratching, it is too hard and stiff. A good brush should give a pleasant sense of warmth and friction to the hand, without producing discomfort, even when vigorously used. Generally speaking, unless the palm is hardened by manual labor, what you can stand on your hand will be a pretty good index of what will agree with your scalp. Brushing with a really good brush ought to be a pleasure in itself; indeed, if you do not so adjust the brush as to make it so, you are not likely to keep regular and proper habits of brushing your hair. It is best for men to use two brushes, one in each hand, as the desired currying of the scalp can be given more easily, quickly, and pleasantly with both hands at once, alternating strokes, than with but one. Inasmuch as the only part of a hair which grows, or in the strict sense of the term is alive, is the root, which lies from a been found to have the slightest real effect upon the growth of the hair. Some of them, like the aromatic oils and extracts, by their "warmth," redden the scalp slightly-that is, increase the flow of blood through it a trifle-but this is about as powerful for hair growth as the light of the moon is for melting icebergs. If we would spend one-fifth of the dollars that we lavish on hair-lotions upon firstclass bristle-brushes, and the energy which we devote to rubbing them in to wielding the brush, we should get ten times the benefit. Ninety-nine per cent. of the virtues of hair-tonics and scalp-remedies reside. in the elbow-grease they are rubbed in with. Keep the body healthy, the scalp clean, and the hair well brushed, and you have done all in your power, and that usually is enough, to avert the curse of premature baldness and of having the hairs of your head all become back-numbers. Take care of the scalp, and the hair will take care of itself. By Dr. Harvey W. Wiley and Anne Lewis Pierce The future historian of the present age will probably chronicle no period in which fat ladies were fashionable. Should such a time come the fakers would be put to it to provide some panacea for the ill of unfashionableness. But they would do it and reap a golden harvest. Any woman who believes that she can take off flesh by something put in her bath would believe that she could put it on by the same means, or something equally absurd. It would seem that the whole list of obesity-cures would strain credulity to the breaking point; but the sad fact is that venders of such fakes are getting richer every day that a complaisant government allows their advertisements to go through the mails. We hope that the following article will cause a few of them to attempt to earn an honester living. Samples of foods having only a local sale should not be sent to our Washington laboratory for analysis. The success of our general work for pure foods depends upon our having the facilities of our Washington Bureau available for the fight against adulteration in high places and by big manufacturers ple old-time frauds under new names and new auspices, with marvelous scientific explanations as to how they do the work, and new assurances of harmlessness and effectiveness. There is a strong conviction among substantial folk to the effect that if you want to change a condition, you must discover its cause and remove that. Why is one person fat and another thin? Often the thinnest man eats the most. Many factors enter into the problem. Your nervous, high-strung, worrying woman will convert into energy the food that her placid, slow-moving, optimistic friend stores up as fat. The amount of exercise and food taken-whether the tendency is to eat starchy, sweet foods or to choose lean meats, fruits, and vegetables -and variations in completeness of digestion and assimilation all enter into the problem; but these matters have no terrors for the vendor of a cure-all. Our whole mental and physical make-up and our habits of life, our nerves, our organs, and our ancestors, in mysterious conclave, decide whether we are to be fat or thin. And into this awe-inspiring assembly the advertised fat-reducer steps jauntily, with a cathartic in one hand and a washing-soda bath-powder in the other, turns loose much language, and guarantees to circumvent all untoward conditions. And thousands listen, and lose their money-but not their superfluous fat. One feature of the advertising is particularly amusing, and shows a keen knowledge of human nature if not of physiology. Recognizing the discouraging effect it would have on sales to ask the jolly fat person to do anything unpleasant, to diet or exercise, one and all, in unanimous chorus, assure you that nothing of the sort is necessary. The modern proprietary medicinevendor puts no limitations upon his curealls; the mistaken habits of life are to be enjoyed as before-immunity is secured by taking the pill or powder offered. Let's take a look at some of them-a close look through the chemist's eyes-and see what all this talk is about. Some of the Fakes Consider "Get Slim," introduced by one Jean Downs, of New York City. Our curiosity is roused to the highest pitch by being told all the things this remedy is not. It is not a medicine, not a laxative; it is positively not injurious, no perspiring bath is necessary (though the Get Slim bath-mixture will help), no dieting, no exercising "No change in your mode of living is required." It is a pleasant, healthful drink, made from a combination of fruits; it reduced, said Jean, eighteen pounds in four months. Just to tickle the imagination and raise the curtain of mystery a bit at the corner, we are told in a burst of confidence that Jean has "made pies of every one of its ingredients." We refused to guess; we asked the chemist. "Citric acid, sugar, and a little pink dye, probably cochineal," came back the answer. Pink lemonade has always been associated with side-shows and fat ladiesand here it is again. Now, lemon juice is well enough, among other things, in combatting fat-forming tendencies, but if you take it "in any quantity, at any time," as advised, there is apt to be trouble. And furthermore, citric acid artificially prepared is thought by many to have a very different effect from pure lemon juice. Long-continued overdosing with acids cannot but derange the digestion. One correspondent wrote that symptoms of "great weakness, severe headache, and loss of control of muscles of the tongue" had followed a severe régime of dieting and taking copious drafts of "Get Slim." The druggist said it was harmless; what could the matter be? Plainly it was a case of acidosis (acid intoxication), due to the accumulation of acid products in the body, acquired faster than they could be eliminated, and the patient became ill as well as slim a result often following extreme measures, though they involve only taking too much of the harmless ingredients found in mother's pies. You can in-tox-i-cate (that means poison) yourself with many foods and drugs besides alcohol, by using them improperly. You get a twelve days' supply of this dyed citric acid for $1.00. It is hard to figure out this, because “there is no prescribed dose," but we would back a dozen lemons at thirty-five cents against. this amount of "Get Slim." Take one lemon a day in water, diet and exercise, and save the balance. The dye and the sugar aren't worth such a sum, and the circular is misleading, if not dangerous. A very elaborate and alluring cure is offered by Lucile Kimball-a complete treatment for seven dollars. Again you do not stint yourself in any way as to food, drink, or laziness. You just give up seven dollars, and "permanent slenderness" is yours. We looked into it. This is a threebarreled cure. It is rather pretentious, and having been betrayed by simplicity, we turned to the graceful pictures of Miss Kimball's slender form with hope in our eyes. We sent the pink tablets, the brown tablets, and the powder to the test-tube man, and awaited his answer with bated breath. He seemed rather bored; it did not strike him as being "distinctive and new," as claimed, but rather old and commonplace. The brown tablet proved to be a timehonored cathartic of the aloin type; the pink pills were a tonic and stomachic, consisting principally of red pepper, menthol, and bitter principles, probably from gentian |