Book __-__
CoipglitlJ?
CQB3UGHT DEPOSm
©
CT^CXa/v/JjC" b^\\/^Ar\»Ov^t^
Harriet
Hubbard
Ay er's B
1 o o k ^^dt
A Complete
Treatise or
and Au th e n t ic
I the Laws of
HEALTH ^^^ BEAUTY
Including Many Carefully Tested
Formulas Hitherto Unpublished
GOOD HEALTH
HOW TO PRESERVE IT
GOOD LOOKS
HOW TO OBTAIN THEM
With full Instructions for Physical Culture,
Facial, Scalp and General Massage
By HARRIET
HUBBARD AYER
Superbly
«3*
•
Illustrated \ ;'*
HOME TOPICS
BOOK COMPANY
246 Fifth Avenue New York
74876
|i.ii)rary of Congre^^^H)
Two Copies Receiw-d i
NOV IS mo I
Copj/ right eiitr^ I
FIRST copy.
2r.d Copy Delivered! to t
^K
^^^
.(\^^
Copyright, 1S99, by
Harriet Hubbard Ayer
AH ris:his and translation reserved
Entered at Stationers' Hall, Londoyi, Eng.
The illustrations in this work, from orig-
inal drawings and photographs, are protected
by copyright, and their reproduction in any
form is unlawful ; and notice is hereby given
th^t anyone guilty of infringing the copyright
'thereof will be dealt with as the law directs.
2)ebication <^
HIS BOOK, which
had never been
written save for
the repeated demands for
such a volume, is dedicated
with much affection to my
countless correspondents,
who are unknown to me per-
sonally but whose friendship
and confidence it is my hap-
piness to possess.
ymm}'
CHAPTER I
TJIJEJ WILL 0' THE WISP, BEAUTY
The desire of every woman to be beautiful — Her constant pur-
suit through life — How a woman is robbed of good looks
— Her valiant fight against time — Desire to be beautiful
inspired by man^ — Plain women not preferred by the oppo-
site sex — An actual case in point — Beauty the supreme
power of woman ^ — Maintenance of beauty after maturity
means purity and temperance — Women should not always
be satisfied with Nature. .......
PAGE
35
CHAPTER II
THE ART OF REMAINING YOUNG
Age a matter of feeling, not of years — Some famous women who
have kept their beauty long past middle life — Two modern
instances — Women under thirty need not grow old —
Those fifty and over may recover their beauty — No virtue
in plainness — The world's most beautiful women have been
also the most powerful — Beauty and goodness should walk
hand in hand — No royal road to beauty — Care and com-
mon sense alone required — Good housekeepers often neg-
lect themselves — Women under thirty need no cosmetics
— Those older fully justified in their use .
(5)
41
6 CONTENTS
CHAPTER III
THE 8IN OF BOWDINESS
PAGE
Danger of drifting into dowdiness — Some women never look well
dressed — The dowd not confined to any station in life —
After marriage many women neglect their personal appear-
ance — Dowdy wives in danger of losing their husbands —
A grave mistake for a woman to neglect her looks — Almost
criminal in a married woman — Peace and happiness of the
whole family may be involved — Lack of time not a valid
excuse — Less important things may well be neglected, if
necessary — Few women need be plain looking — Virtue and
loveliness — Depraved women never truly lovely. . . 50
CHAPTER IV
THE WELL-GROOMED WOMAN
What the expression means — Cosmetics not a factor — The bath
a prime requisite — The hair, face, hands and apparel —
Middle-aged women, especially, should be well groomed —
An example in support of this statement — A woman of
fifty who made herself look young — A husband's suscepti-
bility at forty-five — Effect of tailor-made gowns and pretty
apparel — A fresh and wholesome appearance quite as at-
tractive — Dress alone not the touchstone — The author's
own experience — Satisfaction derived from an observance
of hygienic rules. ........ 57
CHAPTER V
CLEANLLNESS THE HAND 31 AID OF HEALTH
4.ND BEAUTY
Any woman may retain her good looks — How she may defy the
years to come and collect interest on her past — ''Cleanli-
ness next to Godliness" — What it means to be clean —
The bondage of soap and water a blessing — The transfer-
CONTENTS
PAGE
mation of plain, sallow, bad-complexioned women — Meaning
of a real hygienic bath — Value of the fleshbrush and face
scrubbing brush — About pure soap — Expense not worth
considering — Tepid and hot baths — Friction after the bath
— Benefits from sea bathing. . . . . •. .64
CHAPTER VI
CLEANLINESS THE HANDMAID OF HEALTH
AND BEAUTY— Concluded
More about the bath — Bran and almond-meal bags — Recipe for
home manufacture — A fragrant bath liquid — Best time to
take a bath — Temperature of the bath — Special efficacy of
hot baths — Sara Bernhardt on the value of hot water —
More about pure soap — A delicious bath perfume — Hun-
gary water and aromatic vinegar — How to make the flesh
firm and smooth — The Turkish bath — Value of the sweat-
ing and scrubbing process — Sulphur baths ^ — How to take
a sulphur bath at home — The electric bath — Aromatic
baths for nervous women — The beauty bath — The gelatine
bath — Bath of the aristocracy — Even age is charming when
clean and wholesome ........ 71
CHAPTER VII
THE HAIB
Its structure and growth — When it will reproduce itself — The
sure proof of baldness — How the quantity, quality and
texture of the hair are governed — Vigorous circulation nec-
essary to luxuriant hair — Lack of care the chief reason for
falling hair — Necessity for cleanliness, ventilation and fric-
tion — About washing the hair — Causes of unhealthy hair
— Harmful hair restorers and tonics — Gray hair in men
and women — Beneficial results from scalp massage — The
electric brush for scalp circulation — The coloring matter of
the hair — Why the hair changes color. .... 86
8 CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII
THE HAIR — Continued
PAGE
The use of peroxide of hydrogen — The bondage of golden hair
Bleached hair never permanent — Why the roots will not
bleach — Method of applying peroxide — Danger of using
ammonia — Skill necessary in properly applying peroxide —
How to get back the original color — How to make lifeless
hair bright — Treatment not adapted to the eyebrows — How
to produce Titian red with peroxide — Homemade hair dyes
not advised — A once famous dye. ..... 92
CHAPTER IX
THE HAIE—Conti7iued
Affections of the hair — Dandruff the result of uncleanliness —
Lotion for excessive scurf — To keep the hair and scalp
healthy — Scrupulous cleanliness necessary — A shampoo for
dandruff — How to cleanse the scalp — Eczema of the scalp —
Remedies for falling hair — The Jabarondi tonic — Treat-
ment for falling hair after fever — Castor-oil hair tonic —
On loosening the hair at night — Care of children's hair —
Foreign remedies for falling hair. ..... 101
CHAPTER X
THE HAIR— Continued
Superfluous hair — The mortification of women with beards and
moustaches — Electrolysis the only certain cure — Depila-
tories only a temporary remedy — How disfiguring facial
defects were once considered — The case of Charity Ross —
An effective and harmless depilatory — How to remove su-
perfluous hair from the arms — Hair on the arms may be
bleached with peroxide of hydrogen . . . . .107
CONTENTS • 9
CHAPTER XI
THE HAIR— Concluded
PAGE
Lovelocks of the summer maid — Desirability of curling hair —
Artificial methods for making the hair wavy — Curling fluids
rarely satisfactory — Rubber curlers or curling iron prefer-
able — Recipe for curline — Hair curled to last three weeks
— Description of the process — Secretage or permanent curl-
ing fluid — Process highly objectionable . . . .113
CHAPTER XII
SCALP MASSAGE
Troubles with the hair which are incident to defective scalp circu-
lation — Scalp massage an excellent means to restore circu-
lation — Instructions regarding the treatment — How to
relieve a nervous headache — Scalp massage for congestive
headaches — Why men and women lose their hair — How
to brush the hair — Scalp massage for baldness and falling
hair — Danger of choosing an unskilled operator. . . 121
CHAPTER XIII
THE COMPLEXION
Most American women have poor skins — Few complexions are
free from blemishes — Amount annually spent for cosmetics
in the United States — The pastry habit — Evil effect of
too much saleratus — -Value of bread-and-milk luncheons —
Prevalence of pimples — Fossati Cream for pimples — How
to treaty muddy and pimply skins — Sulphur soap for pim-
ples. . . 125
CHAPTER XIV
THE COMPLEXION— Continued
Freckles — General comment on these disfiguring blemishes —
All skin troubles curable in the absence of hereditary ail-
10 CONTENTS
PAGE
ment — Freckles not unclean like blackheads or pimples —
The two classes of freckles — Summer freckles — Cold or
winter freckles — Frequent bathing, scrubbing and rough
friction for summer freckles — A simple additional remedy
— An accompanying lotion — The Medical Record's remedy
for obstinate freckles — Special ointment to be used in con-
junction with the latter — The hydrozone and glycozone
treatment — Softening unguent for chapped face — Lotion
for dry and scaly skin — Tan and sunburn — Moth patches
— Formula for face bleach ....... 129
CHAPTER XV
THE COMPLEXION— Continued
About blackheads — A form of acne — Each speck marks an ob-
structed gland outlet — The black speck simply dirt — Pa-
rasitic character of blackheads — Danger in forcibly removing
blackheads — Can be easily cured with proper treatment —
How to proceed — Treatment for obstinate blackheads — A
new remedy for blackheads — Various forms of acne — Con-
fluent acne — Acne indurata — Value of face scrubbing in
acne — Treatment applies to men also — Acne molluscum
— Treatment for acne molluscum. ..... 137
CHAPTER XVI
THE COMPLEXION— Continued
Eczema and skin eruptions — Any eruption fatal to beauty —
Cleanliness the most important requisite — The process of
skin decay and reproduction — The consequence of congested
pores — The most stubborn cases of skin diseases yield to
cleansing and friction — Case of a young Swedish girl —
Remarks on eczema — Even inherited skin disease may be
palliated — General treatment in eczema — Dr. Cazenave's
remedy — Dr. Monin's lotion — Dr. Cooley's treatment —
Eczema ointment ......... 142
CONTENTS 11
CHAPTER XVII
THE COMPLEXION— Continued
PAGE
The flirtatious washrag — Few women know how to properly
wash their faces — A face-washing class — The old and the
new way — Scientific natural method for keeping the pores
free — How the average gentlewoman washes her face —
How to really free the skin from impurities — The thorough
scrub with hot water, soap and a brush — The soap itself to
be carefully rinsed off — Face steaming — Danger in the
process — Hot cloths considered more efficacious — Lotion to
be used after face steaming. ...... 151
CHAPTER XVIII
THE COMPLEXION— Continued
Technical description of a wrinkle — All wrinkles do not indicate
age — An unerring record of the past — They tell of good
and bad attributes — The countenance reflects the character
— Lines which reveal the gossip, the talker, the malicious,
cynical and fretful woman — Wrinkles reflecting tempera-
ment hard to remove — General treatment for wrinkles —
Attention to diet of great importance — Effectiveness of
properly administered massage — Electricity an excellent
adjunct — Tissue building often required — Formula for skin
food 157
CHAPTER XIX
THE COMPLEXION— Continued
Swedish system the only reliable and lasting method — Relaxed
facial muscles must be built up — Services of a skillful
masseur necessary — Knowledge of anatomy indispensable
— General observations on massage — Explanation of the
various motions — How to remove a droop in the eyelid —
To correct laughing wrinkles — The several facial muscles
— What causes sunken cheeks — To obliterate lines of care
— How to treat the neck and throat — Treatment not un-
pleasant. .......... 170
12 CONTENTS
CHAPTER XX
THE COMPLEXION— Continued
PAGE
The gentle art of face skinning ^ — ^Description of the process —
Probably originated with the Greeks — An extremely pain-
ful operation — Attended with some danger — The treat-
ment very expensive — Improvement in appearance un-
questionable — All lines of character obliterated — About
birthmarks — Their removal possible in many cases — Dis-
figuring scars may also be wholly or partially r'emoved. . 182
CHAPTER XXI
THE COMPLEXION— Concluded
The summer girl — The hot season need not be especially trying
to the complexion — A few simple precautions necessary —
The daily bath an essential — A lotion for tan — Cucumber
cream — Effect of too much meat and starchy food — For-
mula for soap paste for the skin — Beauty cream — Milk
vinegar — A simple summer lotion — Strawberries and spinach
for the complexion. ........ 190
CHAPTER XXII
THE EYES AND EYEBBOWS
The eye a telltale of the soul — Protuberant and sunken eyes
may be corrected — Dull eyes may be made lustrous with-
out drugs or cosmetics — The use of "eye beautifiers " con-
demned — Lotion for granulated lids — Wash for inflamed
eyes — An eye brightener — About clipping the eyebrows —
Crossed and squinting eyes easily curable — Formulas for
eye wash — Beauty's eyebrows — Heavy eyebrows an index
of vitality — To remove superfluous hairs — Toilet of the
eyebrows — To correct broad and bushy eyebrows — To ar-
rest falling eyebrows — Cosmetic for darkening the eye-
brows — Electrical treatment. ...... 197
CONTENTS 13
CHAPTER XXIII
THE JSfOSE
PAGE
Red noses generally the result of excess or carelessness — Rela-
tion between the stomach and nose — Hot water a valuable
remedy — Influenza, Rose Fever and Hay Fever — The hydro-
zone and glycozone treatment — Syrup for an itching nose
— Aromatic bath with massage — Treatment for shiny and
oily noses — Straightening deformed and ill-shaped noses
— Red veins on the nose — Bleeding at the nose — Treat-
ment for a swollen nose. ....... 206
CHAPTER XXIV
THE EAR
Dimensions of the perfect ear — Mothers and nurses often to blame
for deformed ears — Treatment for outstanding ears — Pierc-
ing the ears reprehensible — Danger attending the operation
- — Eczema of the ear — Ointment for eczema of the ear —
Formula for Duval's earache cure — To remove hardened
cerumen — How to cleanse the ear — Treatment for black-
heads in the outer ear — To remove insects from the ear. 216
CHAPTER XXV
THE MOUTH AND TEETH
The perfect mouth — Influence of the mouth and teeth on personal
beauty — The age of wonderful dentistry — Antiseptic wash
for offensive breath — Hydrozone and glycozone for catarrhal
breath — Pocket pastilles — Treatment of the teeth — Care
of the baby teeth — How to brush the teeth — Tooth powders
— Formula for too abundant salivation — The habit of gri-
macing in children — Massage for drooping corners of the
mouth — Crown fillings — Wash for receding gums — For-
mula for the famous Eau Botot ointment for cold sores and
fever blisters — Myrrh and borax mouth w^ash . . . 221
14 CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXVI
THE MOUTH AND TEETH —Continued
PAGE
Absolutely clean teeth never decay — Value of smooth tooth sur-
faces — Tooth polishing — Hardening the tooth structure —
The use of formalin — Preventative measures and destruction
of germs — How stained and discolored teeth maybe whitened
— How crowded teeth may be remedied — How crooked and
misshapen teeth may be straightened — Display of gold to
be avoided — Porcelain inlays — Artificial teeth — Value of
skillful dentistry 231
CHAPTER XXVII
THE MOUTH AND TEETH— Concluded
The wonders of modern dentistry — Fine teeth a prime requisite
to beauty — How a tooth once extracted can be made to grow
again — Tooth implantation — Details of the operation — A
recent successful case — Replantation and transplantation of
the teeth — The most remarkable achievement of dental sur-
gery — Operation not long nor painful. .... 237
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE ARMS, SHOULDERS, NECK AND BUST
Physical culture for skinny and bony arms — Lumpy arm of the
athletic girl — The beautiful arm — Calisthenics — Treatment
for those who are too thin — To improve rough skin — Lotion
Giannini — Massage for thin arms — Lotion for whitening the
arms — To remove superfluous hair on the arms — Delcroix's
poudre subtile — Massage for relaxed muscles — Treatment
for a flabby throat — Voice culture for scrawny throats. . 243
CONTENTS 15
CHAPTER XXIX
THE ARMS, SHOULDERS, NECK AND BUST —Concluded
PAGE
Average measurements of a finely-formed woman — Development
of the bust — Danger of using the glass cup — ^The Kisch
treatment to reduce the breasts — Treatment for bust devel-
opment — Compressed oxygen gas — To make the busts firm
- — Linen collars and pretty necks — Massage to counteract
the effect of wearing stiff collars — Formula for removing
yellow stains under the collar ...... 252
CHAPTER XXX
THE PERFECT WOMAN
Height should be eight times the length of the head — How the
height should be divided proportionately — Proper propor-
tions in width — List of requirements for the perfect woman
— A woman may be remarkably attractive without exactly
conforming to a fixed standard — Importance of cleanliness,
neatness and fastidious care in the matters of the toilet . 258
CHAPTER XXXI
THE CORSET
The cultivated waist — The artistic standard for the waist — The
wasp waist and the ailments of women — The evils of tight
lacing — A squeezed waist not pretty — Healthful way to
attain a slender waist — Effect of tight lacing on the nervous
system — The average woman requires a corset — It should
be well fitting and properly constructed — What a proper
corset will do for the figure — Harm done by tight lacing
often entailed on a future generation ..... 269
PAGE
16 CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXXII
THE HAND
No woman's hand barred from some degree of beauty — Importance
of early care of children's hands — Rough hands often the
result of carelessness — Pure soap only should be used^ —
Amadine for the hands — Honey paste for softening the
hands — Lotion for chapped hands - — Wash for itching of the
hands — The Sitts method of manicure — The proper mani-
cure set — Remedy for profuse perspiration of the hands —
Treatment for chilblains — Indigestion and red hands. 278
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE HAND— Concluded
How to have soft, pretty hands — Scrupulous cleanliness necessary
— Skin food for the hands — Almond paste — How to whiten
the hands — Cocoa cream cerate — How to be your own
manicure — Simple implements and little time necessary —
Sharp instruments should not be used — How to care for the
skin around the nails — Details of the process of manicuring
— Formula for nail powder and rose paste — To remove
warts — Miscellaneous hints on the hands .... 289
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE EOOT AND FOOT GEAR
The "Cinderella foot" not the fashion — The foot should be in
proportion to the frame it supports — The former test of
foot perfection — Few women over thirty have perfect feet
— Hope for the rising generation — The "Trilby foot" —
Harmony makes beauty — When the female foot attains its
normal size — The average size of the female foot — Requi-
sites of the truly beautiful foot - — The foot according to
Flaxraan and the Greek models ...... 298
CONTENTS 17
CHAPTER XXXV
THE FOOT AND FOOT GEAR— Concluded
PAGE
The common -sense shoe — Evils of wearing the high French
heels — Du Manner's missionary work — Toilet of the feet
— Thorough cleanliness requisite — How to cut the nails —
How to correct crooked nails — Advice regarding ingrow-
ing nails — About narrow shoes — Result of tight shoes not
always immediate — Cures for corns — Tender feet — Patent
leather condemned — Cold feet — Profuse perspiration and
its remedy — Bunions — Services of pedicure advised — Re-
cent wholesome improvement in foot gear — Broad foot-
form shoes the fashion. ....... 302
CHAPTER XXXVI
FOOT MASSAGE
A wonderful relief for tired feet — Beneficial for feet that have
been improperly shod — An expert masseuse not required —
Lotion to be used before massage — Detailed explanation
of the process — Proper treatment of a corn after cutting
— Points to be heeded in fitting a shoe — Enlarged joints
— So called "magic cures" should be avoided — Hints re-
garding care of the feet ....... 312
CHAPTER XXXVII
LATE HOURS AND DISSIPATION
"Paying the price" — Abstinence of our grandmothers — Influence
of Europeans on American sobriety — The drinking woman
— Geography of a dissipated woman's face — The demands
of society — Why the personal charms of society women so
quickly fade — A typical example from the author's personal
experience — A still sadder case — Excess fatal to beauty,
happiness and morality — A cheerful sign of the times —
Excess in tea and coffee drinking. ..... 320
18 CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXXVIII
PHYSICAL CULTURE
PAGE
Importance of daily exercise — Value of gymnastics — About deep
breathing — Few people breathe properly — Deep breathing
should be developed into a habit — The author's system —
Gymnastics remedy many physical defects — Value of calis-
thenics for growing girls — Boudoir gymnastics recommended
— No apparatus necessary — A schedule of exercises . . 327
CHAPTER XXXIX
PHYSICAL CULTUBE — Continued
The Swedish or Ling system of calisthenics — Details of the dif-
ferent movements — Vigorous work necessary — Exhaustion
should be avoided — Good ventilation an essential — Dress
should be loose and light — Special value of apparatus —
Dumb-bell exercises to build up the chest — The movements
in detail — Flat-chested girls — Round-shouldered women . 339
CHAPTER XL
PHYSICAL CULT URE — Continued
Where women need strength — Abdominal exercise and hip-reduc-
tion — The rigid waist — How to attain an elegant walk and
carriage — Special exercises in detail — ^^Movement for straight-
ening the shoulders and developing the bust — An exercise
for general suppleness — How to fill out thin and scrawny
throats — The movements in detail — Grace and health
gained by running. . . . . . . . .350
CHAPTER XLI
PHYSICAL C ULTURE — Concluded
Swimming for girls and women — How to learn without a master
— A healthful and desirable accomplishment — Artificial aids
should be avoided — Only a few simple rules to be observed
CONTENTS 19
PAGE
— First attempt at a stroke — How to tread water — How to
learn to float — Bathing costumes — What to do in case of
cramps and vertigo — How to rescue the drowning and re-
store consciousness. ........ 360
CHAPTER XLII
SOW TO SLEEP
Tlie right way and the wrong — Sleep one of the most important
functions of life — Too little time given to rest — Lack of
sleep quickly destroys health and vigor — Ample repose
necessary to the preservation of female beauty — Hints about
sleeping room and beds — The right way to lie — The best
position for promoting health and a fine figure . . . 373
CHAPTER XLIII
BEAUTY AND HEALTH FOR THE JBUSLRES8
WOMAJSr
Importance of good looks in business — Best-looking applicants
generally get the positions — Elaborate dressing out of place
— The proper make-up — A contented spirit should be cul-
tivated — Regular exercise not to be neglected — Hints for
the toilet — Importance of the toilet on retiring — A sepa-
rate sleeping room highly desirable — Should have ten hours
sleep, if possible ......... 374
CHAPTER XLIV
MOTHER AND CHLLD
Maternity the holiest mission of woman — Importance to the off-
spring of moral and physical health in the mother — Hints
about the newborn child — The first bath — Dressing the
navel — Use of the flannel bellybancl — Simple clothing for
the little one — Newborn babies need no artificial food —
Care in the choice of a wet nurse — The best artificial milk
— General rules for feeding — Schedule of diet for babies
brought up by hand ........ 379
A.— 2
20 CONTENTS
CHAPTER XLV
MOTHER AND CHILD— ConcUded
PAGE
Weaning the baby — Sterilization of milk — Bathing and dressing
— How to carry a baby — Powder no longer used in the
baby's toilet — The sometimes capricious stomach — Baby's
accomplishments — Weights and measurements — Baby's
good looks — The ears — The nose — The head — The mouth
and teeth — General hints . . . . . ... 389
CHAPTER XLVI
HOW TO READ CHARACTER FROM THE FEATURES
The face as a whole must be considered — The rosebud mouth —
The conceited mouth — The gossip's mouth — The mouth of
truthfulness and loyalty — The teeth — The chin — The nose
— The eye — The eye of long memory — The jealous eye
— The narrow eye — The eyebrows — The ear . . . 405
CHAPTER XLVn
EMACIATION
How thin women may become plump and stay so — Leanness
can be easily avoided — Harmless measures alone necessary
— Treatment not wholly availing in cases of chronic organic
diseases — Helpful suggestions — Irritable nerves — Treat-
ment in detail — Exercise, diet and rest — Value of skin
food — A tonic sometimes necessary — Value of voice culture
— Cultivation of calmness and placidity — The treatment not
an experiment ......... 417
CHAPTER XLVIII
OBESITY
How to safely deal with an excess of flesh — Any woman can treat
herself without injury to health — No drugs necessary —
CONTENTS ' 21
PAGE
Treating fat scientifically — Some flesh-reducing methods —
The proper weight for various heights — When many women
beo-in to grow stout — How to meet the enemy — Regulating
the diet — Suitable clothing — Exercise, diet, sleep — Regi-
men produces almost immediate results — Encouragement
from frequent weighing — Lotion to prevent the formation of
wrinkles after reduction — The treatment not an empty fad,
but an accomplished scientific fact ..... 425
CHAPTER XLIX
COSMETICS
Their use and abuse — When properly applied they are neither
immoral nor vulgar — Cosmetics are of ancient lineage —
A woman fully justified in repairing the damage of years
and care — Cosmetics not necessary for a woman under
thirty — Fading beauty accentuated by carelessness — Day-
light cosmetics — Cosmetics for the home-dinner, opera and
ball — Liquid whitener — White face-powder — Formula for
rouge — Liquid rouge ........ 434
CHAPTER L
PERFUMES
The perfumer's art has changed little with time — How to hold a
flower odor — Only a few flowers yield oils — Essential oils
very costly — How to make your own perfumes — How to
distill essential oils from flowers — The best flowers for pur-
poses of distillation — " Bouquets " the most successful odors
— Extract essence of rose — Lavender toilet water — Florida
water — West India bay rum — Sachets — Rose sachet powder
— Violet sachet powder — Incense and sweet-scented pastilles
for burning — Cologne — Lavender and rose smelling-salts —
Heliotrope sachet powder — Formula for fictitious violet
water — Potpourri of rose leaves — The abuse of perfumes. 441
22
CONTENTS
APPENDIX A
PAGE
How Catherine Lane, a human wreck, was restored to
HEALTH AND BEAUTY WITHOUT DRUGS OR STIMULANTS OF
ANY KIND .......... 456
APPENDIX B
How Martha Baker was cured of obesity, without drugs. 477
APPENDIX C
Easily-made remedies and toilet preparations .
. 499
APPENDIX D
List of medicated soaps, with their uses . . • . . 528
APPENDIX E
Table of measures
• • • e a
. 530
General Index .
o a
. 533
PAGE
Harriet Hubbard Ayer, -------- Frontispiece
Mrs. Aver at work, --_-----___ 28
Mrs. Ayer at 20, from a photograph taken in Rome, Italy, - - 31
Mrs. Ayer and her little daughter, --------32
Transformation op an Ugly Duckling. A.
1. Miss Frankie Jay when she first consulted Mrs. Ayer, - - 37
2. The missing tooth replaced, - - - - - - --37
3. Premature wrinkles removed from brow, _ _ _ _ 37
4. Freckles eradicated, ----__-_. 37
Transformation of an Ugly Duckling. B.
Eyebrows that met over the nose removed. Miss Frankie Jay at
the end of six weeks' treatment, ------ 33
Madame Patti at fifty-four (1898) -------- 43
Madame Bernhardt — her latest photograph (1899) - - - - 44
Mrs. Langtry at the age of sixteen, --------53
Mrs. Langtry — present day (1899) -------- 54
The Duchess of Marlborough (latest picture), an ideal young mother, - 61
English type of beauty — the Princess of Pless, ----- q2
American type of beauty, -----^-_--67
Type of golden-haired beauty, - - - -- -- - - 68
Three American types of beauty, -_-____. 73
Austrian type of beauty, ---------- 74
French type of beauty — Cleo de Merode ---»--- 77
Jewish type of beauty, -------__-7g
Italian type of beauty (old) ---- ;---^_81
Italian type of beauty (modern) -------- 82
The Hair:
The anatomy of a single hair, --------87
How to brush the hair, --------- 88
An artist's model famed for luxuriant hair. No. 1, - - - 93
An artist's model famed for luxuriant hair. No. 2, - - - 94
(23)
24 ILLUSTRATIONS
Scalp Massage: page
1. First movement in scalp massage, - - - - - -119
2. Massage gently in line of part, ------- 120
3. Third movement in scalp massage — Eipple movement, - - 123
4. Massage treatment for headache, ____-- i24
The Complexion — Lines and Weinkles:
(1) Petulant lines. (2) The gossip. (3) Conscientious wrinkles.
(4) The cynic. (5) The giggler. (6) Revengeful lines, - - 159
Anatomical chart showing facial muscles : (1) Frontalis muscle.
(2) Occipitalis muscle. (3) Orbicularis Palpebrarum muscle.
(4) Orbital portion of the Orbicularis Palpebrarum. (5) Com-
pressor Naris muscle. (6) Depressor Alse Nasi muscle. (7)
Orbicularis Oris muscle. (8) Levator Labii Superioris muscle.
(9) Levator Anguli Oris muscle. (10) Zygomaticus Major.
(11) Zygomaticus Minor. (12) Platysma Myoides. (13) De-
scending portion of Platysma Myoides. (14) Depressor Labii
Inferioris. (15) Depressor Anguli Oris. (16) Levator Menti.
(18) Temporal muscle. (19) Masseter muscle. (20) Sterno-
mastoid muscle. (21) Trapezius muscle, _ - - - 160
Massage for wrinkles in the forehead, _--_-_ 171
Massage for removing laughing wrinkles, ----- 171
Massage movement for removing droop to eyelid, - - - - 172
Massage for making flabby neck firm, ------ 175
Massage for developing the predominating muscles, - - - 175
Massage for developing Mahler muscles, ----- 176
Diagram for Facial Massage :
To remove furrows from the brow, - - - - - - -179
To remove laughing wrinkles, --____- igQ
To remove a droop in the eyelid, ------- 183
For making flabby neck firm, ------- 184
For developing the predominating muscles, ----- 187
For strengthening the Mahler muscles, ----- 188
The perfect eye, __---------- 2OI
An old type of beauty, __---.----- 202
The Mouth and Teeth:
Mrs. X before implantation of teeth, ------ 239
Mrs. X after implantation of teeth, ------ 239
The perfect mouth (profile) __-_---- 240
The perfect mouth (front view) ------- 240
The harmonic poise, ___-----_-- 259
Diagram of normal figure, --------- 260
The stretch of thumb and second finger should measure the face, - 263
The Gibson type of measures, --------- 263
Normal proportions of a woman's figure — 3 illustrations, - - - 264
Normal proportions of a woman's throat, ------ 267
ILLUSTKATIONS 25
PAGE
Normal proportions of a woman's wrist, ------- 268
Normal proportions of a woman's foot, ------- 268
The torture corset, ----------- 273
The middle aged woman with a badly fitting corset. No. 1, - - 274
Same woman with proper fitting corset. No. 2, ----- 274
Corset for slender women who wish the new figure, - - - - 274
Manicuring :
Shape the nails with a velvet file, ^ ----- - 285
Use clippers instead of curved scissors, ----- 285
Showing use of the orange-wood stick in manicuring, - - - 286
Polishing with the buffer, - - -- - - - - 286
Foot Massage :
To massage the sore joint, ___--__- 313
Rub always from the ankle toward the toes, - - - - 313
To relieve bunions and swollen joints, ------ 314
Use the rotary movement on the outside of foot and ankle, - 317
Support the ball of foot with left hand, ------ 317
Geography of a dissipated woman's face, -__-_- 318
Physical Culture :
Gymnastics for the little men and women of the four hundred, - 329
Form exercises for grace and strength: (1) Lying flat on back,
arms extended above head, chest deflated. (2) Lying on back,
arms extended, chest inflated. (3) Seated, arms extended,
chest inflated. (4) Lying on back, feet and arms extended
upward, chest deflated, -------- 330
Exercises for strengthening muscles of thigh and side, - - - 333
Exercises to expand chest, -- - - - - - - 333
Exercise for erect figure (Swedish movements) - _ - - 334
Running for strength, __---_--- 334
Exercises in Physical Culture:
An invitation to consumption, ------- 337
Consumption defied, ________ 337
Exercises for chest and lung development — 4 illustrations, - - 337
The Ling movements — 7 illustrations, ------ 338
Dumb-bell exercises — 8 illustrations, -_--__ 341
The game of basket ball — 4 illustrations, ----- 342
To develop calf of leg, - - - - - - -- - 347
To reduce size of waist, --------- 347
Chest development and rounded arms, - - - - - - 347
Exercises for reducing hips and making waist supple — 3 illustra-
tions, ------------ 348
Swedish movements :
Leg swing to reduce hips, forward movement, - - - 351
Leg swing to reduce hips, backward movement, - - 351
Half standing, trunk bending backward, - - - _ 352
26 ILLUSTRATIONS
Physical Culture : — Continued page
Swedish movements : — Continued
Exercises for strengthening abdominal muscles, - - 352
Sitting, trunk bending backward, with arms bending and
stretching, ---_-_____ 355
The same as the first with arms stretching, - - - 355
Head exercises for flabby throats and double chins: (1) Throw
the head as far back as possible. (2) Bend the head forw^ard
until the chin rests upon the breastbone. (3) Turn the head
from right to left, let the chin approach the shoulder as nearly
as possible, --------.__ 355
Exercises in Physical Culture':
Floating, --369
Ready to dive, ---------- 369
Swimming, ----- 369
Treading water, ---------- 369
How to sleep and how not to sleep — 3 illustrations, -. - - " - 870
Wrong way to put a baby in a tub, -------- 381
Right way to put a baby in a tub, -------- 381
Sew the baby's clothes on,- - - - - - - - - - 382
Wrong way to hold a baby, --------- 391
Right way to hold a baby, ----- 391
A baby's outstanding ears and a pug nose — 2 illustrations, - - 392
How to correct a baby's outstanding ears, ------ 399
A perfectly groomed baby, --------- 400
Mary Anderson Navarro's little son, -------- 407
Symbols of the mouth, ---------- 408
Types revealed by the chin, ---------- 411
Types revealed by the neck, - - - - - - - - -412
Catherine Lane, before treatment, -------- 461
Catherine Lane inhaling oxygen, -------- 462
Catherine Lane at the end of six weeks' treatment, ----- 473
Catherine Lane, two years after, -------- 474
Martha Baker, before treatment, -------- 493
Martha Baker, after five weeks' reduction treatment, - - - - 494
Martha Baker's measurements, taken from life, showing proportionate
reduction from Mrs. Ayer's treatment, 497
The evolution of the corset — from Greek zone to the corset of to-day, - 498
Electricity to remove wrinkles, -- 515
The proper way to use the camel's-hair face-scrubbing brush, - - 516
Mrs. Ayer and Her Daughter Margaret 531
cr
o
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3
Which with experimental zeal doth warrant
The tenor of my book. — Much Ado about Nothing.
^OR fifteen years I have been studying, experi-
menting, manufacturing and writing along
the lines followed in this volume.
I do not advance theories, but demonstrated
facts in what 1 have to say. I know that
good women are happier and better if they
keep their good looks, their youthful grace
and elasticity, their girlish figures throughout life, than
when through ignorance or carelessness, or both, they lose
their personal charms and become old and bent, wrinkled
and fat, or emaciated before they have reached the golden
prime of life. When I say that no woman need be obese,
no woman, if she have not an organic disease, need be
bony, no woman need grow bent and haggard and yel-
low, faded or wrinkled; I assert what I have proved not
once, but thousands of times.
I believe that good women can be more helpful, more
uplifting, and wield a stronger moral influence if they
(29)
30 PREFACE
are lovely to look at. graceful as well as gracious, perpet-
ually young and beautiful, than the reverse.
We were created with a love of beauty, and woman is
its highest expression. The beautiful girl, the beautiful
wife and mother, the beautiful grandmother — we think of
them each with a special tenderness and gratitude.
The reason for writing this volume is found in the
fact that for many years no single day has passed that I
have not received letters from unknown women asking
for a book that would give them practical advice on the
subjects here treated.
I most sincerely hope and believe that every woman
who does me the honor of reading what I have to say
will find many hints and suggestions that will be useful
to her and to others whose welfare she has at heart — for
it is my earnest wish to be of practical service.
I am indebted to the Editors of the New York World
for permission to reprint the copyrighted accounts of the
cures of Catherine Lane and Martha Baker, two patients
who were placed by the Sunday World in my care, and
for leave to use in this book various of my formulas,
which have appeared in the World's evening edition.
I also beg to acknowledge my indebtedness for many
formulas and also for much valuable information con-
tained in this book to the eminent dermatologists, Dr.
E. Monin, Secretary of the French Hygienic Society and
Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Dr. Hebra Pere,
Vienna, and also to Drs. Fossati, Vigier, Anna Kingsford,
J. V. Shoemaker, as well as to the works of the late Sir
Erasmus Wilson, — Drs. DeBaye and Cazenave, and partic-
MRS. AVER AT TWENTY
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN ROME, ITALY
(31)
MRS. AVER AND HER LITTLE DAUGHTER
(32)
:
PREFACE 33
ularly I wish to express my appreciation of the aid given
by Dr. Robert Eugene Payne, whose marvelous dental
work needs no commendation of mine to enhance its value.
Doctor Payne performed the operation of tooth im-
plantation described in Chapter XXVII. and personally
gave me much late scientific information in the manage-
ment of teeth, which places me in his debt and will prove
of valuable benefit to my readers.
1 wish, likewise, to thank my colleagues, Mrs. E. A.
Hammond, Mrs. E. M. Brandenberg, Miss E. Cogswell, Mrs.
Juliet Lee, Miss Parrish, and Miss Sophie Bergman, each
eminent in her calling, for the photographs illustrating the
administration of electricity, facial massage, manicuring,
and foot massage, massage of the scalp, and Swedish move-
ments for physical culture.
These pictures were taken under the personal direction
of the ladies mentioned, and are invaluable because they
actually demonstrate from living subjects the scientific
methods for obtaining the best results from treatments
which are acknowledged by the medical profession, with-
out a dissenting voice, as the very best known to science
for the purposes in view.
CHAPTER I
THE WILL O' THE WISP, BEAUTY
Even virtue is more fair when it appears in a beautiful person. — Virgil.
N HER own mind, at least, no woman is ever just
what she wants to be. If she be pretty, she is
striving to be prettier. If she be plain, she is
struggling to be less plain, to approach comeliness
by one path or other. When one considers the
amount of time, and patience, and money, and
heartache a woman consecrates to the task she
has set herself, the situation becomes well-nigh pathetic.
Almost from babyhood the secret aim of every little
girl is to be beautiful. She wants to be good, too, but she
feels that, first of all, she must be beautiful. Idle at her
books, listless and indolent where every other aim and
object of life is concerned, you will find your daughter,
your mother's daughter and mine, your laundress's daugh-
ter, the daughter of your clergyman, or the daughter of
(35)
36 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
your hero, equally alert, eager^ untiring, and faithful in
the pursuit of good looks.
I doubt if any woman ever stops, ever calls a halt, in
the pursuit of outward loveliness. As a young maiden
she is intent upon the creation of beautiful womanhood.
She watches the deepening color of her eyes, notes the
increasing symmetry of her form, the cunning beauties
that reveal themselves in the arch and curves of a mobil-
ity lately come to moist red lips.
She knows that she is each day the handmaid of a
work of creative loveliness, and she never tires — never
grows weary of watching the mirrored result.
Finally she rejoices in a superb fulfillment of rosebud
promises ; she realizes the blossoming of the flower, but
her charms are hardly mature ere she suddenly becomes
aware that they begin to show signs of fading.
Then she begins to defend her precious possessions.
Care, anxiety, maternity, rob her of the rose-leaf color in
her cheek, imprint little lines upon her smooth brow, steal
away the elasticity of her girlish figure.
By every means in her power, often by every so-called
power within her means, she fights inch by inch for the
crown of her life's happiness ; her pretty face, her lithe,
graceful form. She fights valiantly, too, and even in the
defeat of her Hebe-like grace of youth, she manages to
win our admiration by an opulent and splendid maturity.
The pursuit of beauty in woman has been aided and
abetted by man, if, indeed, it does not owe its origin to the
male. The best man in the world, the worst man in the
universe and all the others in between, succumb to
No. 1 : MISS FRANKfE JAY WHEN SHE FIRST CONSULTED
MRS. AVER
NO. 2 : THE MISSING TOOTH REPLACED
No. 3 : PREMATURE WRINKLES REMOVED FROM BROW
No. 4 : FRECKLES ERADICATED
THE TRANSFORMATION OF AN UGLY DUCKLING — (a)
(37)
EYEBROWS THAT MET OVER THE NOSE REMOVED. MISS FRANKIE
JAY AT THE END OF SIX WEEKS' TREATMENT
(38)
THE TRANSFORMATION OF AN UGLY DUCKLING — (b)
THE WILL 0' THE WISP, BEAUTY 39
the charm of beauty in woman. Incidentally it may be
stated that he usually says he prefers a plain, good woman
to a pretty, vain one. It is very impressive to listen to a
man's dissertations upon woman's vanity and her love of
admiration.
Recently a man told me that nothing to him was so
hopeless as a woman striving to be better looking than
the Lord intended she should be.
*'Why," he said, ''can't a woman be satisfied with
Nature ? "
And I feebly replied that Nature had been extremely
skimpy in dealing out personal attributes to some of us,
and a Nature that gave a girl crooked teeth, pink eye-
lashes, freckles, and knock-knees, was not deserving of the
undying gratitude of her victim.
^' I should think," he retorted with much vigor, " a
thousand times more of a girl who is content to abide b}^
the looks she was born with than of one who tries to im-
prove on Nature."
The night following I saw this young man at the
theatre. He was escorting a young woman with auburn
hair and beautiful blue eyes.
The next morning he asked me if I saw the '' sweet
little girl who was with him," and if I didn't think her
'^awfully pretty."
And I behaved like a perfect angel and said I saw her
and thought her lovely. There was something else I might
have said, for I remembered that same "sweet little girl"
when she had white eyelashes and eyebrows, and the
ugliest carrot-red hair ever inflicted upon a child. I know
40 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
when and how that hair was made a pretty auburn, and
those eyelashes and eyebrows stained a shade darker.
And I also know that the man who finds her so charm-
ing now would never have looked twice at her with her
white eyebrows and lashes.
Some of these days I hope this little girl will have the
courage to tell my friend, who is head over heels in love
with her, about her eyebrows. That will be the time for
testing this man's affection. Because he raves over this
maiden's exquisite soul, which he assures me is a fit com-
panion for her face, ten to one he will declare he has
been deceived by a designing girl villain. And who knows
what the consequences will be?
But if every man who asks a sweet young girl to join
her life with his own is not concealing from her some-
thing rather more discreditable than a stained eyebrow,
then, I say, let us all stop work and sing psalms of re-
joicing, for the millennium is upon us.
The pursuit of beauty is as old as the world — as old
as the love of beauty. Do not let us blame the women
who have learned, some of them in the saddest of all
ways, that beauty is the supreme power of our sex. Eather
let us realize that perpetual beauty and virtue are syn-
onymous, because it has been proved that even physical
beauty, if maintained in its proper sense, after maturity,
means purity and temperance, and without these two at-
tributes no power on earth can preserve a woman's love-
liness beyond the early thirties.
CHAPTER II
THE ART OF REMAINING YOUNG
Beauty is a great gift from Heaven, not for the purpose of female vanity, but for one
wlio loves and wishes to be lowed. — Maria Edgewood.
GE is a matter of feeling, not of years.
It has been frequently said that a woman
is as old as she looks, but a man only as
old as he feels. It has also been from time
to time declared by various wiseacres that
every woman looks her age.
Helen of Troy was forty-six when men
fought for her smiles and favors. Diane de Poitiers was
fifty-six when men far and near acknowledged her a siren,
whose fascinations none could resist. Julie Recamier at
sixty could hardly dissuade an enamored prince, half her
age, from suicide, because she declined to accept his pro-
testations of passionate love. Ninon de FEnclos's last des-
perate affair of the heart occurred when that lady was in
her early eighties. But, you will say very properly, that
these are women of history, and personal history is apt
A.-3 (41)
42 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
to be far from accurate. Let me then point you to ex-
amples of persistent beauty and youthfulness, despite all
obstacles, in the women of our own generation.
Look at Sara Bernhardt as a typical example of the
woman who really is only as old as her face and figure
appear. Mme. Bernhardt is far beyond fifty. She ap-
pears about thirty-seven or thirty-eight on the stage,
but wonder of wonders, she really does not look a day
over thirty in private life. I know Mme. Bernhardt, and
the last time she was here I looked closely at her face.
I scrutinized every feature ; I was on the alert for the
lines that are said to mark the fortieth year; for the loss
of flesh firmness which is, unless prevented by care, almost
certain to intrude its unwelcome presence at about forty-
six. I watched Mme. Bernhardt as perhaps she never was
watched before, and I declare to you that, with the excep-
tion of a few tiny emotional lines about the upper lip,
Sara Bernhardt is as young in appearance to-day as she
was when I saw her twenty years ago in Paris, and a
thousand times better looking, more charming, and fascin-
ating in every way.
Adelina Patti is another woman over fifty who will
never be old in appearance, and whom no one can recall
as a really old woman.
I could continue, had I space, to cite innumerable other
instances which would prove the statement I make with-
out qualification, when I declare that there is no necessity
for a woman to grow old.
Now, when I say there is no necessity for a woman to
grow old, I mean just what the words stand for. This
MADAME PATTI AT FIFTY-FOUR — (1898)
(43)
r
f
I
f
MADAME BERNHARDT — HER LATEST PICTURE (1899)
(44)
i
THE ART OF REMAINING YOUNG 45
statement is intended for women under thirty. They may
remain where th y are for twenty years, if they will. I
have another and more comprehensive statement to make,
and one I have fully proved, and am prepared to prove
again. It is that women of fifty or over who chose to do
so, may recover, in appearance and feeling, the youth they
have been defrauded of. They may get back the lost lines
and curves, the freshness of the skin and elasticity of
step, if they but will to do so.
You see, happily for us women, the old-fashioned grand-
mother has gone out of fashion. May she never be re-
vived. Fifty years ago a woman practically retired from
the pleasures and active interests of life at about her for-
tieth birthday and began to get ready to die. It made
no difference how youthful her spirit may have been, nor
how many years of her young life she had unselfishly de-
voted to the bearing and rearing of a brood of children.
Yes, I glory in the fact that we have emancipated the
young grandmother. The truth is there is no rhyme or
reason in age as associated with decrepitude. The woman
of to-day is young, vigorous, and beautiful at fifty, because
she has discovered that there need be no such thing as
old grandmotherdom. The grandmother of to-day is some-
thing to be proud of. She is in the prime of her life.
She looks forward, not back. The reverence inspired in
the fulfillment of a splendid womanhood, in which no
faintest signs of fading or weakness are visible, is no less
exalted and far more admirable than the condescending
and patronizing protection we gave to the grandmother
of half a century back, who shed tears for her departed
46 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
youth, often, I doubt not, for the greater portion of her
adult life.
It has taken a good many years, and an eternity of
patience, to convince the modern woman that she is ac-
countable to herself, as well as to her family, for every
wrinkle, for her middle-aged figure, triple chin, scant locks,
toothless mouth, bent back, and general invitation in her
appearance to Time to do his worst — a rushing out to
meet and embrace every foe to her looks, and her happi-
ness as well.
There is an old adage, and a true one, which says
''Comeliness recommends virtue." If there were virtue in
plainness, this world ought to be much better than I, at
least, have found it to be. Mortals are led by appearance.
It is the beautiful women of the world who have been
the most powerful. It is the beautiful women who have
largely made history. Beauty and goodness should walk
hand in hand, and the more lovely a good woman is, the
longer she can retain her charm of person, the better
equipped she will be for the highest duties that may de-
volve upon her.
It has been said that there is no royal road to beauty.
There is no regal or sumptuous approach to anything
that is worth having, so far as my experience has taught
me. Certainly the preservation of one's graces and
charms requires care and common sense, but not more
care than you give your fine laces, your precious bric-a-
brac, your flowers, your household effects, or your pets.
Scrupulous cleanliness, air, light, diet, exercise — it is
simple enough — and without question we adopt these
THE ART OF REMAINING YOUNG 4n
means, partl}^ or in their entirety, for all other things
within our care and jurisdiction. It is surprising, nay, it
is amazing, to think of the line we draw between our-
selves in the point of care, and the skillful attention and
the solicitude we bestow upon an animal of the lower
kingdom, or even upon the parlor furniture. We neglect
ourselves, but we keep the silver from tarnishing, and the
house well dusted. We have accepted, with rigid sullen-
ness, or a resignation which could never have been any-
thing but pretended, the moth patches and specks upon
our cheeks and brows, and the disposition of our noses
to turn bright red when they most afflicted us by so
doing. We have been tormented by skin diseases, over-
burdened by fat, and tortured by protruding bones when
we desired curves ; we have supinely submitted because —
well, does any reasoning woman know ? I certainly do
not, except that it has been inherited and bred in us for
generations back to take all these afflictions as a part of
God's work. At the same time, we have exhausted our
lives in polishing brasses and keeping specks off the
window glass.
In scornful disdain we bar the spotty bit of fruit, the
withered vegetable, or the aged hen from our kitchens
and our tables, for we are, first of all, conscientious house-
keepers. We are as one who should say : " Nothing shall
be speckled or withered or wrinkled but me," and I speak
with no intention of being irreverent when I assert that
we have pretended at least to believe that our mutilated
and disfigured faces and forms were a part of God's spe-
cial and specific work, while we have religiously taught
48 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
and been taught that ours consisted in an endless war
against time and decay, spots and specks, dusts and tar-
nish, as applied to silver and mahogany, cupboards and
window glass. In other words. Providence would look
after us. If he didn't it was for our own good, and a
part of some great and glorious scheme has primarily
necessitated our being humiliated and neglected. Provi-
dence exacted of us to do nothing for ourselves. We
were to put in our time beautifying tin pans and brass
knockers.
I believe the old-fashioned idea concerning a woman,
as here referred to, is not only absurd, but demoralizing.
If it be symbolic of pure domestic life and womanly
character to be a good housekeeper, — which means to be
exquisitely nice about the appointments of one's home, —
why in the world is it not even more praiseworthy for
the mistress of such a home to regard herself a-s quite as
precious as the daintiest of her possessions, and to care
for herself accordingly ? I am convinced that no one fac-
tor in a family is so demoralizing as a careless, slatternly
wife and mother.
A witty member of our sex once said that she found
a consolation in being well dressed which no religion had
ever afforded her. A woman is always happiest who
knows that in her appearance she is charming and pleas-
ing to those whom she loves and whose affection makes
up the sum and substance of her life.
There are a number of ways of combating the ravages
of time in its impress upon our faces and forms. One,
the hygienic method, which is certainly the best, should
. THE ART OF REMAINING YOUNG 49
begin in infancy or early youth, and may properly be
called the prevention of destruction. The method will
result in giving to every disciple the maximum of her
possibilities for physical beauty.
The second is the cosmetic branch, v^ith w^hich may be
included plastic surgery. Cosmetics and youth should be
strangers.
During the years I studied chemistry and cosmetic art
and manufactured so-called cosmetics, I labored faithfully,
both here and in Europe, and the longer I remained in
the laboratory manufacturing these articles, the less I
felt the average v\^oman needed them or should use them,
and the more respect I had for scrubbing brushes, soap,
and water, without other aids, at least for women under
thirty.
Women of a certain age who have missed the great
opportunity for perpetuating their youth, in the general
ignorance which clouded all of us, at least in my genera-
tion, can undo much of the ravages of the past. They
may call a halt on Time and may be pardoned for resort-
ing to innocent devices in the way of harmless aids to
their toilet. It will be my very pleasant task to offer
my readers suggestions from both points of view — that is
to say, suggestions for young women who wish to pre-
serve their beauty and to acquire a hygienic method of
doing so, and to other and older women advice for the
repair of damage and for the restoration of the beauty of
youth, or at least a fair resemblance of it, for ''beauty
doth varnish age and give the crutch the cradle's in-
fancy."
CHAPTER HI
THE SIN OF DOWDINESS
Time hath worn us into slovenry. — Henry V.
HERE are women who are constitutionally ex-
empt from dowdiness, but the average woman
of moderate means and, above all, the woman
who has to count every penny and make it
the equivalent of a five-cent piece is in great
danger of drifting into that most unattractive
condition called dowdiness.
. The dowdy woman may be born so, in which case I
think she should never marry. All of us see women who
never look well dressed, whose hair is always coming down,
and whose faces even are "dowdy" looking, showing an
utter disregard of .the art of grooming, as well as a total
lack of discrimination in the selection of apparel.
Frequently these women have money, for the dowd is
not confined to any station in life, nor is she necessarily
the product of poverty and ignorance.
(50)
THE SIN OF DOWDINESS 51
When you see a woman with filthy skirts, a soiled
stock and faded finery, no matter how bright and pretty
her face or how perfect her complexion, she is dowdy.
Some women drift into dowdy ism in a most extraordi-
nary manner as soon as they are what they are pleased to
term married and settled. A girl whom we all remembei
as dainty and trim during her youth in a year or two
after her brilliant marriage becomes a confirmed sloven, a
slave to loose wrappers and down-at-the-heel slippers — in
other words, a dowd.
The man who remembers her as she stood beside him
in all her bridal beauty has cause to feel that he has been
badly cheated, as indeed he has.
Wives who permit themselves to become dowdy well
understand that sooner or later their husbands will regret
ever having married them, and after that the end may be
easily predicted.
It is a grave mistake for a woman to neglect her looks,
no matter what her age or condition in life. It is almost
criminal in a married woman. Sometimes when I tell this
to a woman who is on the road to dowdiness she replies
that she lets herself go because she has so much to do
and does not like to spend the money.
This is a penny-wise-and-pound-foolish view of the mat-
ter, and it is pregnant with real danger to the peace and
happiness of two people, and sometimes of an entire family.
The woman who has so much to do would never think
of neglecting to scrub her floor, or polish her tin pans.
She will sew yards of cheap lace upon a baby dress, or
sit up nights making useless finery for a child who
52 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
would be much more comfortable and attractive in a
simple garment.
But she has not time to take a daily bath, to keep her
hair lustrous and well dressed and to preserve her teeth
even and white. Instead she allows herself to degenerate
into a household drudge and dowd.
If I had the making of the laws I would require that
every living woman should take one hot scrub and one
cold sponge each day, brush her teeth twice at least and
her hair night and morning.
I would make it a misdemeanor for a woman to ap-
pear in drabbly skirts, and a penitentiary offense to be
found attired in a "Mother Hubbard'^ outside of her own
room.
Further than this I don't believe in plain-looking
women.
There is a chance for every one of us to be attractive
in appearance, and there is no such thing as a hopelessly
ugly girl or woman.
To be sure, we may not be raving beauties, all of us,
but every woman alive can make herself a pleasant pic-
ture for the eyes of man to fall upon.
First of all, whatever her age is, a woman must look
scrupulously nice and clean.
Untidy hands, a face that shows the need of a scrub-
bing brush, hair that is forever falling down or displays
bits of strings and other devices for keeping it up, shoes
that are dingy, without buttons and run off at the heel, a
fringed dress skirt lifted to reveal a soiled petticoat and
a wrinkled stocking.
MRS. LANGTRY AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEN
AN OBJECT LESSON IN BEAUTY CULTURE
(53)
MRS. LANGTRY — PRESENT DAY (1899)
AN OBJECT LESSON IN BEAUTY CULTURE
(54)
THE SIN OF DOWDINESS 55
There is nothing so fatal to a girl's chances as untidi-
ness.
But suppose, as a girl once wrote to me, that a woman
is freckled, and has red hair and no figure to speak of.
Suppose, with such natural disadvantages, she is poor
and has to work hard and ruin her hands, and is always
tired, and can never buy anything pretty. What then?
Well, all that is just what I will suppose.
Now, red hair of itself is beautiful. Usually it waves
or curls, and that is an added beauty.
Freckles are not pretty, and they are practically there
to stay. The freckles of red-haired women are conspicu-
ous during the day, but they do not show much, some-
times not at all, by gaslight.
A red-haired, freckled girl too often lacks sufficient
contrast between eyebrows, eyelashes, and skin to give her
a clean-cut look
I think in such cases it is a woman's duty to darken
the eyebrows and lashes. This can be done with little
trouble and is imperceptible. The complexion of the red-
haired girl is her most serious drawback.
It lends itself to untidiness, so the victim must be
especially careful to keep it looking clean and well cared
for.
If the red-haired girl has an oily skin she must be
careful of her diet, avoiding all greasy and stimulating
food, and in addition she must use an astringent lotion
and a very little fine powder.
If my little red-headed girl has not nice teeth, she should
have them repaired and made pretty and wholesome.
56
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
A thousand times better go without a new winter hat
and gown, if you are a poor girl, than let your teeth
suffer.
And there is not only wisdom, but morality in all this„
for it is virtuous to be just as lovely as one can, and as
no depraved woman ever was truly lovely, there is no
moral danger in being beautiful and remaining so. There
is a good deal of work to be accomplished, but it is a
work in the right direction.
\
"'■'••"-.oooooi-'iGlLBCRT ♦
CHAPTER IV
THE WELL-GROOMED WOMAN
We must be neat ; not neat but cleanly,
— Winter's Tale.
'HEN one wishes to briefly epitomize a woman
as exquisitely neat, perfectly dressed, and cor-
rect in all the appointments of a thorough-
bred daughter of the nineteenth century, one
says of her : " She is a well-groomed woman."
Practically, it means that the lady in
question is most delicately fastidious in
everything pertaining to her toilet and personality. The
well-groomed woman would much sooner relinquish her
breakfast than her morning plunge, and about as will-
ingly submit to an attack upon her moral character as to
a suspicion that her linen was ever other than absolutely
immaculate.
Good grooming has nothing whatever to do with
make-up in any form.
(57)
58 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Indeed, it is opposed radically to paints, powders, and
artifice generally.
The well-groomed woman is she who takes her two
baths daily, and whose bath at night is known as and
called the hot scrub.
The friction of the various bath brushes used for this
function gives the skin a satin-like bloom which no sub-
terfuge w^ill impart.
The well-groomed woman's hair is lustrous, soft, and,
above all, with never a suggestion of dandruff. Her scalp
is as clean and shining as her brow.
She is as careful about the cleanliness of her head as
of her face, and, if necessary, the hair will be washed twice
or thrice a week, for cleanliness and furfura, as she knows,
are incompatible.
Her hands are daintiness itself, her linen irre-
proachable ; her boots as perfectly varnished and as
well-fitting and tasteful as those of her brother, the ac-
knowledged best-dressed man of his class at Yale or Co-
lumbia.
Her skirts and jackets appear each time she wears
them, until they are cast aside, without a frazzled edge or
3pot. Her gloves fit to a nicety, never pinch, and are al-
ways whole and carefully buttoned.
It requires so much time, I hear a reader say.
Yes, it does ; but it is time well spent.
It pays particularly for middle-aged women to be thor-
oughly well groomed.
Not long since I met an old friend of mine who is
certainly fifty, possibly older.
THE WELL-GROOMED WOMAN 59
She was positively a radiant, handsome creature ; so
sweet, so wholesome looking, so deliciously nice to the
eye, that I said to her : —
" You are better looking, handsomer, more attractive
than you have ever been. You were stout ten years ago
— too stout. You didn't look at all as you do now. What
do you mean by playing such a trick, and you a grand-
mother ? "
And my friend laughed, and showed two rows of glis-
tening teeth, and, looking at me with the merry bright
eyes of her youngest daughter, said: —
"Why, I am younger than I was fifteen years ago, for
then I weighed over two hundred pounds and had three
chins.
"Then I had an idea that I must settle down and
wear middle-aged clothes — ' costumes ' the dressmakers
call them — and bonnets with strings under the chin, such
as are worn with costumes and wraps — large, voluminous
wraps," continued my friend.
" Oh, I was playing my middle-aged role to the very
limit, when suddenly I awakened to the fact that my
husband was constantly referring to this or that woman's
beautiful figure, charming appearance, and well-groomed
look.
" Sometimes the women he spoke of were younger,
sometimes about my own age.
"Gradually I awakened to the knowledge that my hus-
band, at five and forty, was just as much of a man and
just as susceptible to beauty and grace as when he first
found me pretty and charming twenty years before.
60 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
''All in a moment I realized that I had grown fat and
dumpy and indolent, and that I was losing my husband's
love.
"Now, it may be unfashionable, but I am just as much
in love with him as I was the day we were married.
"When I actually understood the danger I was in, I
can tell you I made up my mind to defend my most
priceless possession.
"I got a book on physical culture. I learned how to
reduce my flesh systematically and how to keep at a cer-
tain desirable weight. I learned the ritual of perfect
cleanliness and practiced it religiously, getting back my
old-time freshness.
"I stopped wearing 'costumes' and became tailor-made
for the street. I ordered the prettiest gowns and negli-
gees for home and the most elegant little wraps and
waists for the theatre, and you never saw any one so as-
tonished and delighted as my husband.
"When the first grandchild came, I wore such a per-
fectly stunning gown to the christening, and I looked so
well, that my husband and my son-in-law kissed me and
called me a 'regular peach.'
"It wasn't an elegant expression, but it made me
happy and it made me doubly appreciate the merit of
being a perfectly groomed, well-dressed, and attractive
woman, especially after I had passed the golden prime of
life and was descending the shady side of the hill."
Some may say, " Oh, it's all very easy for such a woman
with ample means and time at her disposal, to keep her-
self in the 'pink of perfection,' to parade in tailor-made
THE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH (LATEST PICTURE)
AN IDEAL YOUNG MOTHER
(61)
THE PRINCESS OF PLESS
ENGLISH TYPE OF BEAUTY
(62)
THE WELL-GROOMED WOMAN 63
gowns and ape the juvenile appearance and manners of
the young women of the so-called '400.'"
There is no force in such a protest. If you had seen
this well-groomed friend of mine you would have been
struck, not so much by her apparel as by her neat, fresh,
and wholesome appearance, and you would have said and
known that she would, on that account, look attractive in
even the plainest and simplest garb.
I am confident you will believe me when I say that
when it comes to downright attractiveness, one cannot
always say "Fine feathers make fine birds." My own ex-
perience in life amply bears this out. It has been more
varied than falls to the lot of most of my sisters. I have
been what one might style "a gilded child of luxury," I
have been a business woman at the head of an important
enterprise, and I have been a toiler working more hours
in the twenty-four and harder than most men work, yet
at no time have I seen the day when I felt that my ap-
parel alone made, lost, or kept my friends, while almost
from my girlhood I have been deeply sensible of the ben-
efit I have received and the satisfaction I have enjoyed
from the general observance of the hygienic hints herein
given — hints which help to make the well-groomed
woman in the best and truest sense of the term.
A.— 4
CHAPTER V
CLEANLINESS THE HANDMAID OF HEALTH
AND BEAUTY
Sweet beauty in her face ; such as the daughter of Agenor had.
— Taming of the Shrew.
KNOW and therefore maintain that women may
keep their good looks and manage to defeat time
at something like a sum within the reach of the
average *' little sisters of the rich." Yes, indeed,
and I propose to tell you how.
Any woman, I do not care who she is — how
modest her circumstances, nor, to put it broadly,
what her age, can, by a little care and the practice of
the necessary rules which are the price of perfect phy-
sical beauty, practically defy the years to come, and,
moreover, she can collect the interest due her on the
years that have been defrauding her up to date. She can,
to a great extent, get back the youth she has lost.
(64)
HEALTH AND BEAUTY 65
First of all, we must bear in mind that "Cleanliness
is next to Godliness." So far as good looks go I will not
say it discounts in its results physically the practice of
all the other virtues — but, to my thinking, one must be
clean before one can be really good. Dirt and religion
do not blend. As our cook says when the sauces fail to
mix smoothly, they " kind of cruddle." Now to be clean
means to scrub — yes, from head to foot every blessed day
of one's life. "Slavery!" you may say. So it is; but
most of us are slaves to one habit or another, and the
bondage of soap and water is a blessing disguised. I will
guarantee the transformation of a plain, sallow-faced, bad-
complexioned woman, into a wholesome, rosy, bright-eyed
daughter of the gods, within the period of six months, if
she will follow my advice and the rules I take the lib-
erty of prescribing.
First of all, then, must come the daily bath taken in a
tub with a good scrub from head to feet, including the
face.
The road to beauty was known to the Greek and Ro-
man women hundreds of years ago. They did not begin
to have the resources in cosmetic arts that we have now,
but they understood thoroughly the two vital points in
the pursuit of comeliness and cleanliness and health. To
thi^ end they bathed very frequently.
In a vague way every one supposedly knows how to
take a bath. But how many women in a thousand know
just what a real hygienic bath means, and how to take it?
The great secret of beauty and comfort is in the
health-giving bath, taken at least once each day.
66 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
The water should not be too warm and should be
made cooler by adding cold water toward the end of the
bath, so that the temperature is a little below what we
call tepid before the bather leaves the tub.
It is not enough to jump into the water and dabble
over the body with a sponge or wash cloth.
The skin each day is loaded with the solid matters
which are the residue of the perspiration, or with its own
oily exudations. Unless these accumulations are daily re-
moved by water, soap, and friction, the channels become
choked and the secretions, unable to dislodge themselves,
produce inflammation, which we call pimples, or present
us with stubborn cases of hateful blackheads.
Every woman should possess a flesh brush for the
body, as well as a camel's hair face-scrubbing brush.
Constantly women tell me they cannot afford to pay
for such luxuries. At the same time they will patronize
bargain counters, and appear in public staggering under
the flowers, birds, and feathers of an overtowering hat.
The camel's-hair face-scrubbing brush before men-
tioned is especially manufactured for the purpose, and
costs at retail one dollar and twenty-five cents. It meas-
ures about six inches in length and five across. The
wooden back is unvarnished, and the bristles are white
and firm, but soft. It is easily obtainable at the larger
drug stores.
Use a pure soap. Just bear in mind that no soap, par-
ticularly if largely advertised, can be made of safe and
healing ingredients and be startlingly cheap. If your soap
is good — made of pure vegetable oils, and fit to use on
AMERICAN TYPE OF BEAUTY
(67)
(68)
TYPE OF GOLDEN-HAIRED BEAUTY
HEALTH AND BEAUTY 69
the face, it will have to cost, at retail, not less than
twenty-five cents. It cannot be manufactured and sold at
a lower price.
It does sometimes happen, even in these days of com-
fort for the middle classes, that it is not possible to take
a bath in the large tub. But at least every household is
equipped with washtubs, and even one of these is better
than none at all.
Bathing in hard water is apt to make the skin coarse.
Rain water makes a delicious bath, and when that is not
to be obtained the water may be softened by throwing into
it a small bag of bran. Even a bag containing a pound
of ordinary yellow cornmeal will take the harshness away.
Don't be afraid to use soap. Make a good lather on
the brush and scrub away. Begin with the face and use
a pure hygienic soap with the camel's-hair face-scrubbing
brush. Any good, pure soap is all that is required for the
body. Save the expensive soap for the face alone, and one
cake will last a long time.
A quick all-over scrub and a thorough rinsing with
clear water will take about twenty minutes of each
twenty-four hours. You cannot spend the time more
profitably.
The opinion that a hot bath is enervating is erroneous.
On the contrary, a quick hot bath is exhilarating. A
tepid bath is relaxing, and induces reposeful, health-giving
sleep.
It is not well to bathe within two hours after eating.
The friction of a good flesh brush rouses and acceler-
ates the circulation and prevents the gradually decreasing
70
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
energy of the circulation which accompanies age and
hastens death.
Sea bathing at the proper season is the most invigor-
ating of baths and of wonderful value in strengthening
the nervous system, but I am bound to say the sea bath
does not improve the complexion.
CHAPTER VI
CLEANLINESS THE HANDMAID OF HEALTH AND
BEAUTY — Continued
For beauty is a witch,
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
—Shakespeare.
RAN and almond-meal bags are excellent things
for a luxurious bath. They are not necessary
for the purpose we have in view, but inas-
much as they are delicious and easily obtained
by those who wish to purchase them, and not
difficult to make at home by those who prefer
to do so, I will add that they may be fotlnd
at the usual stores devoted to toilet articles, and cost
about twenty cents each. Here is the recipe for those
who wish to make them at home.
BRAN AND ALMOND-MEAL BAGS
To three pounds of clean bran and one of Florentine orris root pul-
verized, add one and a half pounds of almond meal and eight ounces
(71)
72 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
white Castile soap grated. Mix thoroughly. Make twentj-four bags of
cheese-cloth about eight inches in length and five across. Put about
five ounces in each bag, and use one bag for a bath just as you would a
sponge. Be careful to sew the bags firmly.
The bran or almond-meal bag will make your bath sweet
and soft and fragrant, but it will not do away with the ne-
cessity for soap and the scrubbing brush. If your finances
will permit, you may also use in your bath two tablespoons
of a bath liquid which is very delicious and fragrant. I give
the recipe for making this also. It is easily prepared at
home.
BATH LIQUID
Sweet almonds . . 32 grammes.
Bitter almonds . . 8 grammes.
Rose water . . . ISO grammes.
Benzoic acid ... 1 gramme.
Macerate the almonds until a paste is formed. Do not let them
"oil." Strain them, and add the other ingredients.
You may take your bath either in the morning, or at
night just before retiring, with a preference for the night
hour. A cold water plunge taken in the morning is a fine
tonic, but one must be very strong and vigorous to stand
such a bath, and when it is taken, it is best merely to
plunge in and get out immediately.
The temperature of the hot bath, which is taken just
before going to bed, should not exceed 92 degrees Fahren-
heit. Hotter than this a bath becomes very stimulating,
and is apt to make the subject wakeful.
A hot water bath of half a hour, taken late at night
under favorable conditions, is extremely restful, and I know
THREE AMERICAN TYPES OF BEAUTY
(73)
AUSTRIAN TYPE OF BEAUTY
(74)
HEALTH AND BEAUTY 75
of no factor so potent in the preservation of a woman's
looks and vitality.
When I asked Sara Bernhardt how she kept her ex-
traordinary appearance of youth, her beautiful figure, and
her marvelous complexion, she said to me : —
'^Hot water, my dear; I do not believe that I should
be alive to-day were it not for my hot bath. When I am
nervous, I take a warm bath and am rested. When I
am tired, exhausted, I take a hot bath and am revived.
4^nd every night after the play is over, 1 take a hot bath
and a scrub from head to foot, with a pure soap, and am
refreshed. I believe nothing in the world will preserve a
woman's youth and strength and looks as warm and hot
baths."
Of course it is not wise to take a hot bath in the
morning, and then, before the circulation has become
equalized, after having been stimulated, to rush out into
the cold or damp.
A cold bath every morning is much safer and will be
found equally stimulating where the subject can endure the
shock, and many can really stand it who fancy they cannot.
As before stated, it is very necessary to use a proper
soap, and curiously enough, many people are economical
about soap, while liberal in expenditures for every other
necessity. A pure soap is one that contains no free al-
kali, and which is composed of vegetable oils. For the
face, the best I know of is the French hygienic, but for
the full bath there are a number of less expensive soaps
that are pure and satisfactory. Among these the cotton-
seed-oil soaps are inexpensive and safe.
76 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
To make a delicious perfume for the bath, one need
only add a teaspoonful of the old-fashioned benzoin mix-
ture, which is made as follows: —
TOILET WATER FOR THE BATH
Rose water 900 grammes.
Tincture of myrrh . . 1 . 10 grammes.
Tincture of opopanax ... 10 grammes.
Essence of citron .... 4 grammes.
Tincture of quillaia, q. s., to make an emulsion.
Other good perfumes for the bath may be made as fol-
lows : —
HUNGARY WATER
Pure alcohol 2 quarts.
Essence of rosemary (Hungarian,
if possible), 28 grammes.
Lemon peel 14 grammes.
Essence of balm-mint ... 14 grammes.
Essence of peppermint ... 4 grammes.
Extract of rose 28 centilitres.
Mix , and let stand for two weeks. Then filter, and it is ready for
use.
AROMATIC VINEGAR
Gum camphor 1 ounce.
Oil of cloves 1 drachm.
Oil of cedar and lavender . each 40 grains.
Oil of bergamot and thyme . 20 grains.
Oil of cinnamon 10 grains.
Glacial acetic acid ^ pound.
Mix all, pour into a large stoppered bottle, and agitate until the
camphor is dissolved. This makes a very fine aromatic vinegar for
the bath. Diluted with a little water, it is also most refreshing for
the face.
CLEO DE MERODE
FRENCH TYPE OF BEAUTY
(77)
JEWISH TYPE OF BEAUTY
(78)
HEALTH AND BEAUTY 79
TOILET WATER FOR MAKING THE FLESH FIRM AND SMOOTH
Strong red-wine vinegar, "j
Tincture of benzoin, j- 200 grammes each.
Extract of red roses. J
To the woman who loves a delicious addition to the
bath, the following is recommended : —
TOILET VINEGAR OF STRAWBERRIES
One pound of fresh strawberries, well macerated, and one ounce of
acetic acid, which is nothing more than very strong vinegar. Let the
mixture stand for about twelve days and then strain through a mus-
lin cloth. A little of this poured into the daily bath will prove de-
lightful and invigorating.
Turkish Baths
A Turkish bath, taken at the proper time, is to be
highly commended. The preliminary sweating, produced
by the hot rooms, brings the dirt and foreign substances
to the surface, and the subsequent scrubbing with soap
thoroughly cleanses the skin and opens the pores.
Women who indulge in Turkish baths should be ex-
tremely careful about going out into the cold immediately
after. As excellent as the Turkish bath is, there is no
question but that the subject is liable to catch a severe
cold, and in many cases I know that such colds have re-
sulted in pleurisy or pneumonia. For this reason at least
an hour should elapse after the bath is concluded, before
the subject leaves the bathing rooms.
80 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Sulphur Baths
Many skin affections will yield to a course of sulphur
baths when all other treatments have failed. If it be pos-
sible, the course should be taken at an establishment
where medicated baths are given. If impossible, a sulphur
bath may be taken at home.
HOW TO PREPARE THE SULPHUR BATH AT HOME
The bath may be prepared either by adding one ounce
sulphuret of potassium for every ten or twelve gallons of
water used, or one ounce sulphuret of calcium for every
fifteen gallons of water.
The sulphur bath is a powerful remedy in every de-
scription of skin disease.
The Electric Bath as a Rejuvenator
A jaded society woman will find the electric bath her
great ally in chasing away the marks of time and care.
I have seen women look really ten years younger from
the effects of one bath. Of course the refreshening is
only temporary, but women who can afford it should
take two electric baths a week for the tonic and invigor-
ating effect they give.
The electric bath is a luxury and should be taken in
one's own home under the care of an experienced elec-
trician and masseuse. The patient sits in a bath two-thirds
full of water into which a generous cup of salt has been
thrown, and the electricity is applied through a sponge
from a battery (galvanic preferred). The current can be
ITALIAN TYPE OF BEAUTY (OLD)
(81)
(82)
ITALIAN TYPE OF BEAUTY (MODERN)
HEALTH AND BEAUTY 83
regulated. After the electricity has been applied, the pa-
tient is given a hot scrub which is followed by a thor-
ough massage treatment from head to foot.
There are, unfortunately, but one or two skillful elec-
tricians (women) in New York who understand how to
give these baths successfully. The electric bath should be
given at the patient's house. It is much wiser to employ
a professional electrician and masseuse if possible, but un-
less a competent person can be secured it is better to
learn how to use a battery oneself. A ten-cell galvanic
battery will cost about $20. This method of applying
electricity is wonderful in its results upon the face, and
is an important adjunct to massage in removing wrinkles.
The current should be greatly reduced for the face;
never stronger in my opinion, than three cells. Shocks
are blunders, always painful, very often harmful, no mat-
ter who is responsible, and only a very clumsy electrician
will ^' shock" a patient in the bath. There is no excuse
for a shock, which is the result of ignorance or careless-
ness, and ruinous to nervous women.
Electric baths may be taken once a week with excel-
lent results where they are intended for a tonic only, and
in cases of rheumatism, neuralgia, internal and ovarian
troubles and goitre, the electric bath is often a specific,
and may be given daily until no longer required so often.
AROMATIC BATH FOR NERVOUS WOMEN
Sage 25 grammes.
Romarin 30 grammes.
Serpolet 40 grammes.
Menthol 15 grammes.
Lavender flowers . . . . 25 grammes.
84 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Make an infusion in about a quart of boiling water. Let stand till
cold. Strain. Pour the liquid into the bath; tie the leaves together
in a bag of cheese cloth, and throw the bag into the bath also.
BEAUTY BATH
This bath is said to give the skin a wonderful luster
and appearance of youth. It is made as follows: —
Rose water 125 grammes.
Glycerine 50 grammes.
Pure alcohol 50 grammes.
Tincture of benzoin ... 50 grammes.
Boric acid 25 grammes.
Dissolve the boric acid in the alcohol, and mix with all the other
ingredients.
Use as a sponge bath for the entire body.
GELATINE BATH
Dissolve 500 grammes of good gelatine in four quarts of water.
Put the mixture upon the stove, so that it will melt more rapidly.
Add the entire quantity to the bath.
This bath is used by French women to give firmness
to the skin.
BATH OF THE ARISTOCRACY
To 100 grammes of tincture of benzoin add 40 grammes of aro-
matic vinegar. This quantity is for a large full bath to which it is to
be added.
In concluding this important chapter, I assert that if I
had but one opportunity to make myself heard in this
great world I know what I would say: —
''If you want to be beautiful, healthy, happy, beloved,
and live to a good old age, you must be cleanly."
You can't be if you do not take at least one bath each
day. Not necessarily one of the luxurious baths before
HEALTH AND BEAUTY
85
described, but a ''good, plain bath,'' with plenty of soap, a
scrubbing brush and brisk friction after it.
Beauty alone will cause a man to fall head over ears
in love with a woman. But personal cleanliness and per-
fect daintiness will preserve a man's affection and respect
as no other attribute can, for even age is charming when
clean and wholesome.
CHAPTER VII
THE HAIR
Her sunny locks
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece.
— Merchant of Venice.
T IS well for every one interested in this subject to
know that the root of the human hair, unlike that
of a plant or tree, will, even though plucked out
completely, reproduce itself. Every hair growing
on a human being is really a modification of the
cuticle. Each tiny hair consists of a root, which
is planted in the skin in an elongative shaft,
which projects from the root and the terminal point.
There is a little bulbous enlargement at the extreme
point of the hair root.
This bulb is found in a little sacklike involution of
the cuticle, which is called the follicle. Some hairs are
much more deeply implanted than others, and are conse-
quently capable of far greater resistance. Until the folli-
(86)
HAIR SHAFT
5CALP LINE
HAIR ROOT
SEBACOOUS GLANDS
ARRECTOR PIU nUSCLE
ROOT SHEATHS
CONMECTIVE TISSUE.
HAIR FOLLICLE
HAIR BULB
HAIR PAPULA
f AT CELLS
THE ANATOMY OF A SINGLE HAIR
(87)
HOW TO
BRUSH THE HAIR (ALWAYS BACK)
(88)
THE HAIR 89
cle itself is destroyed, the hair will reproduce itself. The
orifice of the sebaceous glands opens into the follicle, and
in these glands nature prepares the oily substance which
gives the hair a gloss and smoothness. When the follicle
is dead, the place becomes, of course, what we term bald,
and the peculiar smooth, shiny look apparent on many a
bald head is a sure proof of the death of the hair folli-
cle, but so long as there is life, the fact that the hair is
falling out should be by no means disheartening.
The quantity, quality, and texture of the hair are gov-
erned by heredity, temperament, and the general health
of the patient, and depend much, of course, upon the care
received. Nervous people have usually less hair than
those of a more phlegmatic temperament. So long as
the blood circulates with healthy vigor through the scalp,
the hair will be in a greater or less degree luxuriant and
strong. There is always something wrong with the circu-
lation in the scalp when the hair begins to fall, and, as
we say, to grow thin. Excepting sickness and hereditary
or constitutional causes, the chief reason for falling hair,
and indeed for almost all hair ailments, is the lack of
care from which the hair almost universally suffers.
The essential needs of the hair are scrupulous cleanli-
ness, ventilation and friction. For some inscrutable rea-
son, few people are willing to concede that the scalp
requires to be washed often enough to keep it decently
clean. I do not hesitate to say that in all ordinary cases
the hair should be washed thoroughly at least once a
week, and oftener if exposed to much dust or dirt, or if
there is an inclination to dandruff.
A.— 5
90 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Causes of Unhealthy Hair
When the hair persistently suffers from loss of vital-
ity, it is usually from one or more of the following causes :
uncleanliness, mismanagement, anxiety, disease (particu-
larly dyspepsia), want of exercise, overwork, mental strain,
and the use of harmful so-called restorers and tonics.
These same causes frequently produce and increase the
gray hairs that appear on a woman's head, one or two at
a time, at about five and thirty, and a little later usually
on the heads of the other sex.
For falling of the hair, massage of the scalp (see de-
tailed description, page 121) is often wonderful in its ben-
eficial results. It will frequently arrest the loss at once,
or within twenty-four hours, plainly showing that the cir-
culation was impaired and required stimulating.
The electric brush — by which I mean a brush attached
to a battery, as there is no such thing as an electric brush
in reality, except one through which a current of electric-
ity is passed — will be of great assistance in stimulating
the circulation of the scalp. In addition to this a good
tonic should be used locally, but none of these remedies
will be more than temporarily effective if the general
health is impaired, particularly if there is a derangement
of the digestive organs. In such cases, the subject should
at once seek a remedy for the producing cause.
The coloring matter of the hair has been scientifically
shown to consist of the mineral ingredients in the pig-
ment of the cells. These minerals change with age and
health, and vary in individuals. Very blond hair contains
THE HAIR 91
a large proportion of magnesia ; iron predominates in
black hair ; chestnut and browns contain a large amount
of sulphur. When the iron or sulphur pigment fails, the
hair becomes gray, and as iron appears to fail earlier than
sulphur, black hair is oftener found turning gray in youth
than any other color. Sulphur comes next, and the mag-
nesia resists longer than any of the others, for which reason
blond hair often retains its youthful beauty and luster far
beyond middle age.
The reason the golden hair of little children darkens
as they grow older is because the hair pigment changes,
the sulphur or iron increasing and becoming more power-
ful than the magnesia. Because of the demonstration of
these chemicals in the hair pigment, a theory has been
expounded and has attracted many otherwise sensible peo-
ple to the effect that the lacking minerals of the hair pig-
ment can be replaced and the hair thus restored to its
natural color by rubbing the scalp with pomatums or
lotions highly impregnated with sulphur or iron. I have
been told many times in most profound seriousness that
the hair bulbs readily absorbed the minerals, with a con-
sequent restoration of the original pigment — but I have
never seen the miracle effected.
CHAPTER VIII
THE HAIR — Continued
The loose train of thy amber drooping hair.
— Milton.
F 'POETS and prose writers and painters and every-
day men had not from the beginning of the world
sung and written and painted and praised golden-
haired beauties, there would be no occasion for
these humiliating remarks of mine. If we had
not had golden-haired sirens flung at us from
babyhood, we never would have been the streaky-
headed frights we are at this moment — some of us.
But I want to ask seriously the women who are slaves
to the peroxide bottle: "Does it pay? Is it worth the
price ? Does it pay in the first place to enter into any
kind of bondage voluntarily?" For artificially acquired
and maintained golden hair is a bondage compared to
which Egyptian servitude appears, by all accounts, to have
been lightsome and diverting.
(92)
AN ARTIST'S MODEL FAMED FOR LUXURIANT HAIR— No. 1
(93)
(94)
AN ARTIST'S MODEL FAMED FOR LUXURIANT HAIR — No. 2
THE HAIR 95
To begin with, as every " peroxidian " knows to her
cost, bleached hair never remains the same shade, and
never by any happy chance looks like the natural golden
locks. It will deceive many men, — which is something, —
but never another woman.
If once made yellow, it should stay so, one thinks, but
it never does. On the contrary, as though it really were
possessed of an independent spirit, the original color of
the hair is forever unexpectedly asserting itself — just
when it should not. It has a truly maddening way of
showing up, despite all the skill of the peroxide experts
on the face of the earth. Those awful telltale, dark roots,
those lustreless tow-colored ends — the bleached woman is
always conscious of both. For though you religiously ab-
stain from touching any part but the roots of the hair with
the colorless liquid, the roots never say dye, nor yet bleach.
The cause of this failure to bleach the roots is easy
to understand. The hair pigment is more copious at the
roots and the continuous growth — of necessity — makes
the dark line at about half an inch from the scalp. The
contrary is the case with the hair from about three
inches from the roots, which becomes lighter and more of
a telltale at each application.
At the very best, a bleached blonde is never easy in
her mind for a moment. Either she has just applied the
peroxide and feels sure that it is unevenly done, and glar-
ingly metallic in color, or she is conscious that she needs
touching up about the temples and at the back of the
head — one or the other of the telltale spots. She is tied
down to a bottle of peroxide of hydrogen for the rest of
96 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
her life, and if, as is devoutly to be hoped for all women,
she is some man's idol, ten to one she has deceived him
as to her lovely golden hair, and her slavery is more un-
bearable from the awful fear of discovery. Wherever she
goes she must take her peroxide. Just so often she must
apply it. It takes about one day to do this satisfactorily.
But the self -consciousness of presuming to be something
one is not, the anxiety concerning the awful telltale spots
at the roots, the time and trouble required for the ever-
recurring treatments are only a very minor part of the
price a bleached blonde pays for her locks of gold.
Just as soon as a woman bleaches her hair, — profes-
sional women always excepted, — she invites most unpleas-
ant criticism from both men and women, strangers and
acquaintances. When a woman by design makes herself
conspicuous, she must accept the consequences. The con-
sequences usually are that she is regarded lightly, and al-
though she may be, and often is, a girl or woman of
unblemished character, her appearance belies her, and she
suffers the truly awful humiliation of failing to evoke
immediate respect wherever she may happen to be.
At this cost, I find the price paid for the most lovely
golden locks ever produced artificially much too high.
But to those of my sex who insist on yellow hair and
who desire a harmless bleach, I give directions for the
process : —
Peroxide of Hydrogen
Get a bottle of chemically pure peroxide of hydrogen.
Before making the application, the hair should be thor-
oughly washed and dried. Pour a little of the peroxide
THE HAIR 97
into a saucer, and apply to the roots of the hair with a
tooth brush. You must regulate the color by your own
observation. One application will produce a most notice-
able change.
Never use ammonia in connection with peroxide of
hydrogen. Hair dressers have a fashion of "preparing"
the hair, as they term it, by bleaching, and in order to
hasten the bleaching process, they use ammonia.
Peroxide of hydrogen will not injure the hair, if care-
fully used, but in connection with ammonia it will, in the
course of time, destroy the constitution of the hair.
The effect of peroxide is always to make the ends of
the hair very much lighter; the color has been literally
taken out of the hair and there is no way of restoring the
bleached ends. You will have to have the hair dyed or
stained. I do not think any one can personally keep the
hair an even shade by the aid of a bleach, and there is
really no other process that is not injurious. The hair
can be kept slightly brightened by the use of diluted per-
oxide, but the roots of the hair will always be the origi-
nal color as the hair grows out.
In order to keep your hair a uniform color when you
are using an artificial preparation, you should have the
services of some one who understands the matter thor-
oughly. Nothing can prevent the hair from growing out
its original color, and there is always a difference for about
a half inch from the root. Only a person very skillful in
the art can touch up the roots successfully.
To turn bleached blond hair back to its original color,
have it dyed or let it grow out its natural color. After it
98 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
has grown out, if you choose to bleach it again, you can
do so without injury, but it would not do to rebleach or
attempt to rebleach the dyed hair.
Peroxide of hydrogen is also a bleach for the eyebrows.
It would first lighten the color and finally would turn
them a golden shade.
I do not think the peroxide treatment adapted to the
eyebrows.
Peroxide of hydrogen diluted half and half with water
will turn dark brown hair an auburn shade.
When muddy brown hair is at its best it is not beau-
tiful. When it loses its lustre it is extremely unbecoming
and robs a woman of color and style. It can be bright-
ened by washing it, after a thorough shampoo, with a tea-
spoonful of chemically pure peroxide of hydrogen, diluted
in a teacupful of water. Wet the hair thoroughly with it
and fan it until dry.
Gray Hair
Prematurely gray hair is usually an inheritance from
father to daughter or from mother to son, or it may come
from a generation or two back. Many people ask me for
something which will change black hair to silver white,
and do away with the yellow shade. There is no harm-
less preparation which will effect this desirable result. I
have not seen a homemade dye which was not plainly
perceptible ; and though I give recipes for them, I do
not advise their use when a first-class proprietary arti-
cle can be obtained.
THE HAIR 99
I give a formula for a hair dye, but I want to say
candidly that I think homemade hair dyes are rarely, if
ever, successful. In order to make a thoroughly good
hair dye, the services of a skillful chemist are required.
HAIR DYE
Pyrogalic acid, one -quarter of an ounce ; distilled water (hot), one
and one-half ounces. Dissolve. When the solution is cool add one-
half ounce of alcohol. Pyrogalic acid is extracted from Chinese nut-
galls. The hair should always be thoroughly washed before applying
the dye.
I repeat that while this is an excellent hair dye, I do
not think it is successful as usually made by an amateur.
To stain the hair slightly the above dye may be diluted with two
or three times its weight of soft water and a little more alcohol.
A ONCE-FAMOUS HAIR DYE
Precipitated sulphur .... 1 drachm.
Acetate of lead 1 drachm.
Rose water 4 ounces.
This dye was famous during the Mexican War, and its
inventor made a fortune out of it. 1 do not myself be-
lieve in lead hair dyes.
The Turkish Method of Applying Henna Leaves to
THE Hair
In Turkey the women very much affect the Titian-red
tresses which are to-day so much in vogue in America.
The reddish tint is produced by henna leaves as in
America, but the Oriental method of applying the color is
different.
100 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
The Turkish women grind the henna leaves to an impalpable pow-
der. They make a paste of this powder by mixing enough boiling
water to it to produce a thin paste. While yet warm the mixture is
applied to the hair and allowed to remain on the head from a quarter
of an hour to two hours, according to the shade of red desired. The
henna is removed by rinsing in several clear waters.
My own opinion, as I have announced it previously on
the subject, is that the best results are obtained by patro-
nizing one of the v^ell-known manufacturers or hair dressers
who make a specialty of coloring the hair any shade the
customer desires.
CHAPTER IX
THE HAIR — Continued
"Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare,
And beauty draws us by a single hair."— Pope.
CURF, or dandruff, unless in a most aggravated
form, is not a disease. It is the result of neg-
lect, or, in plain English, uncleanliness. Scurf,
^ or furfura, is a natural and healthy formation
and very frequently is produced by rapidly
growing and very luxuriant hair. You may
keep dandruff from accumulating, but you can-
not prevent its formation. When the scurf is excessive,
despite great cleanliness, it denotes an unhealthy condi-
tion of the scalp. In such cases, the following lotion may
be used, but always in conjunction with very frequent
washings: —
Extract of rosemary ....... 1 drachm.
Tincture of cantharides 1 drachm.
Solution of carbonate of potassium . 1^ drachms.
Distilled water 4 fluid ounces.
(101)
102 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Where there is ibching with the scurf or dandruff, the
cause is sometimes found to be parasitical. In such cases,
washing the head frequently with a good bichloride of
mercury soap is most effective. This soap can be pur-
chased at any drug store.
The following oubstances are also employed for removing
parasites : Naphthol, mercurial ointment, tobacco, cocculus-
indicus, pyrethrum, carbolic acid, and sulphur. Any of these
remedies can be procured in the form of powders, lotions,
and ointments, and some in the form of soap. A good drug-
gist will be your best guide in the matter. Naphthol and
corrosive sublimate are well adapted for the cleanly removal
of the parasites. Pure naphthol and pure kerosene are too
inflammable and malodorous to be recommended as applica-
tions. If used, they should be rendered less dangerous by
mixing them with olive oil. Soda, borax, vinegar, alcohol, and
diluted acetic acid are useful also for destroying the nits.
Allies of these parasites in their invasion are a low
tone of the system, induced by poor and insufficient diet,
also bad ventilation, and other unhygienic conditions.
These constitute, under the circumstance, a true disease,
and it is necessary in such cases that the sufferer should
be invigorated by tonics, and at the same time that all
depressing influences be removed.
VIGIER'S REMEDY FOR PARASITES
Doctor Vigier declares that the following formula will
destroy parasitical life. It may be used upon the face or
head:
Bichloride of mercury in solution 5 grammes.
Glycerine 100 grammes.
THE HAIR 103
TO KEEP THE HAIR AND SCALP HEALTHY
To prevent dandruff always use scrupulously clean hair
brushes and do not use a fine comb. Do not wear any-
thing which will heat the head. The following is recom-
mended as a most excellent preventive of dandruff: —
Tincture of cantharides . . 1 ounce.
Liquid ammonia .... 1 drachm.
Glycerine ^ ounce.
Oil thyme J drachm.
Rosemary oil ^ drachm.
Mix all together with six ounces of rose water. Rub the scalp
thoroughly with this preparation until no further evidence of dandruff
is noticed.
To keep the hair and scalp both in a healthy condi-
tion, it is necessary that they should be kept scrupulously
clean.
SHAMPOO FOR DANDRUFF
Yolk of one egg, one pint of hot rain water, one ounce of spirit
of rosemary ; beat the mixture up thoroughly, and use it warm, rubbing
it well into the skin of the head. Rinse thoroughly in several waters.
This wash is good for dandruff where the ordinary shampoo fails.
' TO CLEANSE THE SCALP
This is by no means easy with some constitutions.
Lately I have heard of the wonderful effect produced by
rubbing the scalp with a fresh lime. I advise subjects
with obstinate cases to try this : —
Divide the fruit in two, and as you need it, cut it for a fresh sur-
face. At the end of a week wash the head with a yolk of an egg
beaten in half a pint of warm water ; afterward rinse thoroughly, and
repeat the whole process at the end of another week, if necessary.
104 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Eczema of the Scalp
A good remedy for eczema of the scalp can be pre-
pared as follows : —
Cocoa butter, twenty grammes ; spermaceti, ten grammes ; salicylic
acid, two grammes. Mix in pomade. Then apply to the affected
spots. Allow the pomade to remain on all night. Wear a nightcap,
if possible, to prevent soiling the bed linen. In the morning wash the
whole head carefully and gently with a pure hygienic soap and warm
water. Rinse and dry thoroughly. Repeat this operation night and
morning as long as necessary.
Falling Hair
Where there is great physical debility and a great fail-
ure of health in connection with the falling hair, a course
of tonic medicines taken internally is often very service-
able. A few excellent hair tonics to be used externally
are made as follows: —
FOR FALLING HAIR
Phenic acid 2 grammes.
Tincture of nux vomica . . 7^ grammes.
Tincture of red cinchona . . 30 grammes.
Tincture of cantharides . . 2 grammes.
Cologne 120 grammes.
Sweet almond oil . ... 60 grammes.
Apply to the roots of the hair with a soft sponge once or twice
a day. This lotion is especially good for very dry hair.
THE JABARONDI TONIC FOR FALLING HAIR
This tonic is not a very late discovery. It has been
used for some time and is excellent for falling hair. It
is made as follows : —
THE HAIR 105
Hjdrochlorate of pilocarpine . . 6 grains.
Tincture of jabarondi .... 4 drachms.
Spirit of rosemary .2 drachms.
Yellow vaseline 4 ounces.
Alcohol .4 ounces.
It must be applied to the scalp every night. Rub it in thor-
oughly.
WHEN THE HAIR HAS FALLEN OUT AFTER FEVER
This is very successful when the hair falls out after a
fever: —
Cologne 8 ounces.
Tincture of cantharides ... 1 ounce.
Oil of English lavender ... ^ drachm.
Oil of rosemary ^ drachm.
Apply to the roots of the hair once or twice a day.
It is positively necessary that the scalp should be kept
clean. Shampoo at least once a week.
CASTOR-OIL HAIR TONIC
Castor oil . 80 grammes.
Bay rum 80 grammes.
Tincture of cantharides . . 10 grammes.
Twisting the hair tightly at night is a very injurious
habit. The hair needs ventilation, and to prevent the
free circulation of the air through its roots not only
interferes with the growth of new hair, but weakens the
roots of the old. Every woman should brush her hair
carefully at night before going to bed and braid it loosely
for the night toilet.
A child's hair should be washed at least once a week.
The olive-oil soap shampoo mentioned on page 520 is best
106 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
for children's hair : First wet the hair thoroughly with
warm water, then rub the shampoo mixture well into the
roots. Rinse thoroughly in several waters. Then care-
fully dry.
Foreign Remedies for Falling Hair
Doctor Monin, the celebrated French hygienist, highly
extols the following preparation for falling hair: —
White vaseline .... 40 grammes.
Castor oil 20 grammes.
Gallic acid 5 grammes.
Essence of lavender . . 10 drops.
For premature baldness, I have tried Professor Lassar's
treatment with great success. The hair is first washed
with a good tar soap. It is afterwards rinsed with warm
water, and then a cooler water. The hair is partially
dried, and the following wash applied with friction to the
scalp : —
Solution of corrosive sublimate (5 %) . . . 150 grammes.
Glycerine and cologne water each . . . « 50 grammes.
After thoroughly rubbing this solution into the scalp,
rub it with alcohol to which a little 5 per cent, napthol
has been added. Let the hair dry, after which the scalp
must again be rubbed with a liniment made as follows: —
Salicylic acid 2 grammes.
Tincture of benzoin ... 3 grammes.
Sweet almond oil . . . 100 grammes.
CHAPTER X
THE HAIR — Continued
You should "be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so. — Macbeth.
ERHAPs you think there is nothing pathetic in
the condition of a woman who, having com-
mitted no sin, finds herself the object of a
lifelong punishment in the shape of a mous-
tache.
Yes, I know it is the custom to laugh at
women with beards, but you may believe me
when I tell you that the poor creatures thus disfigured
weep and suffer, and sometimes have actually died from
the mortification and shame. I may also add that of all
the punishments meted out to our sex, the one that is the
ugliest to bear — superfluous hair — is the one that prac-
tically defies science, and for which up to this writing
there is no certain cure, electrolysis excepted.
108 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
There are innumerable depilatories which will tempo-
rarily rid one of the nuisance, and there is the electric
needle which will kill the root, if it happens to strike in
the very center. When one considers the size of even a
coarse hair, and the chances of striking the exact center
of that hair follicle with a needle guided by the very
steadiest hand, one imperfectly realizes the chances for
failure and success. Besides this, electrolysis is very
expensive, and fate has dealt moustaches to the rich and
poor with equal lavishness.
One thing we may be thankful for in this matter. It
isn't much, but it is a step in the right direction. We no
longer supinely submit to moustaches and bearded chins and
die a thousand deaths daily under the impression that they
are special dispensations of Providence. Moustaches upon
women's faces are the effect of a cause, just as everything
else is. One of these days we shall find out the cause per-
haps. Until that blessed hour arrives, the women who are
afflicted with beards may keep fairly busy dealing with effect.
You may not credit my assertion that in your moth-
er's and my time, it was considered, so to speak, flying in
the face of Providence for a woman to try and get rid of
a facial defect, no matter how disfiguring. But I assure
you it was so.
When I was in the West, a year or two ago, I spoke
to a charming old friend of mine on this and kindred
topics, and I asked her if the women of her day looked
as pretty at forty as those of the present time. And she
replied: ''Why, women of sixty-five to-day don't look as
old as we did at forty."
THE HAIR 109
Now, this sweet old acquaintance of mine is nearly
eighty years of age, and she is a saint, if ever there were
one. It is said that she has not missed a Wednesday
evening Methodist prayer meeting but once since she ex-
perienced a change of heart when she was sixteen, and
that one time was the Wednesday of the great Chicago
fire.
She said that she "felt mad clean through to this hour"
when she thought of a certain beautiful schoolmate of
hers who was the flower of the flock until about her eight-
eenth year, when a growth of superfluous hair appeared
on her face, so disfiguring that she secluded herself and
literally broke her heart over her affliction.
When a worldly aunt suggested seeing a surgeon, and
endeavored to get the deformity removed, the girl's father,
who was a deacon in the church, held up his hands in
holy horror, and declared that some awful punishment
would be meted out to people who attempted to interfere
with the Lord's will.
" If the Lord gave Charity Ross whiskers," he said, " He
had some good reason. Most likely she was settin' too
much store by her good looks and must be took down."
Poor Charity Ross ! She was " took down " sure enough,
and sleeps in a narrow grave, dead at twenty-two from a
broken heart, because of this affliction.
My old friend, when she related this story to me, was
filled even yet with righteous wrath, and she said with
flushed face and sparkling eyes: —
"Hattie, don't you ever fail to improve a woman's
looks when you can, and do help the poor things with
110 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
moustaches. It is missionary work just as much as any
other."
Now I should not tell you the truth if I were to say
that by the use of ordinary depilatories you can do more
than keep the affliction in abeyance, but this certainly
can be done. There are a lot of absolutely useless depila-
tories upon the market, and there are several that will
accomplish the temporary removal of superfluous hair
without pain or danger, if properly applied, and which, if
temporary, answer every purpose, inasmuch as they may
be used whenever required. They are inexpensive, rela-
tively speaking, and do not require the services of a phy-
sician or dermatologist.
Electrolysis, when successful, is beyond all question the
sure cure for superfluous hair, but, unfortunately, the elec-
tric needle fails in about ninety cases in one hundred; that
is to say, the operation of destroying the hair root is so
extremely delicate, that the needle, even when directed by
scientific and expert hands, strikes the center of the hair
root only about ten times in a hundred. The operation,
when unsuccessful, may be repeated over and over, and
it has been in one case within my knowledge until every
hair root has been killed, but it required infinite patience,
months of precious time, great endurance, — as it is very
painful, — and the cost was for the treatment to which I
refer, five hundred dollars. If you conclude to try elec-
trolysis, go to the best specialist, or you may add a collec-
tion of white scars to your growth of superfluous hair.
In giving a formula for a depilatory which is effective
and harmless when properly applied, I wish to say that
THE HAIR 111
the compounding of this preparation — said to be the in-
vention of Doctor Boetger — should only he intrusted to a
first-class chemist. This depilatory is highly praised by
Doctor Monin, the eminent French authority. It is made
by passing a current of sulphureted hydrogen through a
thick layer of quicklime until the latter is thoroughly
saturated. After this take of
Sulphydrate of quicklime . . 20 grammes.
Glycerinated starch ... 10 grammes.
Pulverized starch .... 10 grammes.
Essence of lemon .... 10 drops.
Apply a little of the compound lightly to the afilicted
skin. Let it remain twenty or thirty minutes. Wash off
gently with warm water. If it begins to smart before the
time mentioned, wash it off. The hair will come with it.
Apply a little cold cream to allay any redness or irrita-
tion. This preparation, I beg to repeat, is dangerous, and
should be carefully kept where children cannot reach it.
To remove superfluous hair from the arms, get an ordi-
nary five-cent cake of pumice stone. This is not pumice
soap, but the regular old-fashioned pumice stone. To
remove the hair, rub the skin afflicted with the super-
fluous growth, and the pumice stone will wear the hair
off. Be careful not to be too heroic and irritate the skin.
In case the arms are made red by this treatment, use a
little cold cream. The pumice stone is best used on the
arms at night before retiring. The hair on the arms may
be kept so close to the skin by this method that it can-
not be seen. Of course the hair will grow again, and must
be removed from time to time.
112
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Peroxide of hydrogen will, if used frequently, bleach
the hair upon the arms, and if mixed half and half with
ammonia will in time destroy the constitution of the hair.
It will not prevent the growth of new hair, however, which
will appear the original color.
Recently the old-fashioned method of removing super-
fluous hair by means of the tweezers has been revived. It
is said that the application of a little subnitrate of bis-
muth and glycerine to the parts immediately after the
hair had been plucked out by the aid of the tweezers,
will prevent the reappearance of the growth. The plaster-
stick composed of Burgundy pitch and beeswax is another
mechanical and temporary remedy. The stick is heated
to a melting point, clapped on the hairy part, allowed to
remain in contact with the skin till cold, then sharply
withdrawn, bringing the hair with it.
DnDDDDbs;
DDDDDDDDDDaDQ,
CHAPTER XI
THE HAIR — Concluded
Shine out, little head, running over with curls. — Tennyson.
AD Nature been always the kind dame we love
to paint her, she had bestowed a lovelock or
two upon each of us, and in so doing she
would have eliminated from our summer one
of its most distressing accompaniments — the
withered bang, the limp and straightened Hy-
perion curl a la mode of to-day. The gener-
ally done-up appearance we present when the curl has
departed from our forelocks is one of our summer agonies,
and too well we know how the glory of the hair dresser
(be he never so skillful) is eclipsed in one brief half-hour
of seaside fog.
It is said that persons with naturally curling hair are
always possessed of more lovable and sweeter natures
than those with wiry or straight capillary adornments,
and small credit to them, say I. On most occasions in
(113)
114 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
this pilgrimage, the fact that we are looking our best is
a wonderful incentive to good behavior, and the woman
with natural curls can discount her straight-haired sister
in the way of appearances many a time and oft. She
knows it ; why should she not be amiable ? Think of the
picture a curly-haired woman makes of herself in the surf,
with her tiny ringlets blowing and coquetting at every
turn. Why should she not reflect complacency of spirit?
Look at the straight-haired "miserable" as she endeavors
to sneak to her bath-house from her dip, the one thought
uppermost in her mind expressed in her stern and wretched
countenance: "Oh, my hair, my awful, awful hair, with
every bit of wave taken out of it. How like a fright I
look!"
The sad sea wave is a merry, reckless trifle compared
to the somber, straight-haired, drenched, and desperate-
looking woman bather. And the hops and yachting par-
ties ! What chance is there for her of the wiry locks if
there be a curly-haired girl about — a girl whose hair
grows prettier, more irresistible, more dangerously attrac-
tive from the very exposure to fogs or exercise, that ruin
the looks of the lass with the straight wisps where crimps
have been.
It would have been more just, I consider, to have let
the beauty of waving locks go unattended by special vir-
tues.
The straight-haired martyrs should have been at least
the recipients of the sweetness that is alleged to belong
to curls. If we can't be beautiful we ought in justice to
have been created sweet of temper.
THE HAIR 115
When it comes to artificial methods for making the
straight hair crooked, or to be more correct, wavy, why-
there are many so-called curling fluids, curlines, and the
like.
They are rarely satisfactory, as they all contain gela-
tinous ingredients and result in giving the hair a stiffness
of texture that is disagreeable and unbecoming in most
cases.
I give a formula for a curline, but I must frankly say
I prefer the curls formed by the old-fashioned rubber curl-
ers or even by the curling iron.
Naturally the curling iron must be used with discre-
tion, and care must be taken not to burn the hair.
As good a curline as any is made as follows: —
Gum arable (finest white) ... 1 ounce.
Moist sugar (good) ^ ounce.
Pure water (hot) £ pint.
Dissolve. To the solution, when cold, add of
Rectified spirit 2 fluid ounces.
Corrosive sublimate (powdered) . 6 grains.
Sal ammoniac (powdered) ... 6 grains,
the last two being dissolved in the spirit before the admixture. Lastly,
add enough water to make the whole measure a pint, with a little
esprit de rose, eau de cologne, or eau de lavande, to scent it. The
hair is moistened with the fluid before putting it in papers or papil-
lotes, or using irons.
Hair Curled to Last Three Weeks
A few years back a hair dresser in Paris acquired re-
nown for a process of permanently curling or waving the
hair. The coiffeur liberally advertised, and the rush to his
116 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
establishment was something amazing to see. Women
waited hours for even an opportunity to make an ap-
pointment for ''the permanent curling," and the payment
of sometimes ten times the advertised price (five dollars)
would secure a few hours advance in the longed-for serv-
ices of the besieged hair dresser, but more frequently en-
gagements were made six weeks ahead. It was certain
that a fortune as well as fame awaited the individual
who had invented the process for keeping the hair per-
manently in curl.
Being in Paris I availed myself of an opportunity ar-
dently desired to secure waving ringlets, and, after pleading
earnestly, almost tearfully, with the coiffeur's ''secretary"
(if you please), I was told that as an especial favor I might
have my hair treated one week from the date of the re-
ception of my prayer, if I could be, without fail, at the
hair dresser's establishment at six in the morning. I
eagerly promised, and I smile now as I look back on that
summer morning and remember with what zeal I arose
at daybreak and how to the minute I kept my appoint-
ment. The thought of waving tresses, the hope of never
again having to wrestle with hot irons and alcohol lamps
was exciting, and gave quite a zest to life.
When I reached the celebrated M. Eugene's shop, I was
ushered into a little room. My hair was quickly taken
down, and brushed by a young woman assistant. It was
then thoroughly moistened with a liquid, after which, with
a dramatic gesture, the young person walked to the door
at the rear of the room and said : " Madame est prete,
Monsieur!"
THE HAIR 117
Immediately a small, dark-haired man appeared, bear-
ing two sets of curling irons and a little stove. The irons
were heated, and with many a twist and wrench, every
blessed hair on my egotistical head was given a curl.
The operation was neither painless nor soothing. Quite
the contrary. The odor of the liquid as it dried beneath
the heat of the iron was offensive. I wondered if I should
be permanently odorous as well as curled. It was too
high a price to pay even for ringlets. The coiffeur was a
stern and majestic gentleman who wielded a curling iron
as a king his scepter. I dared not remonstrate.
When the curling was over, his majesty departed, and
I was allowed to cool; then my hair was combed and
dressed, and I can truthfully say it was curled. I could
not have believed there was so much curl in twenty heads
of hair. I seemed to have developed suddenly a most
wonderful case of mature rickets. My head was four times
its size, and I reflected with bitterness that it was guar-
anteed permanent. When I reached my hotel, my travel-
ing companions shrieked with glee at my Circassian Lady
hirsute adornment, and they sang me Lear's nonsense
rhyme about a ''bird that was three times as big as a
bush." I was as anxious to get rid of my curls as I had
been to acquire them. I accordingly sent for an every-
day hair dresser, and had my hair thoroughly washed.
Alas! It was permanently curled and no mistake; and
later when an eminent French chemist called, and I hys-
terically explained the sudden swelling of my head, and
told him what I had done, I was not much consoled to
have him tell me that my hair had been treated with the
118 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
process used by the pelt moDgers (somewhat modified) to
obtain and fix a curl in certain skins, and called a "secret-
age." The method is to moisten the hair for one-half its
length with the secretage which is made as follows: —
SECRETAGE OR PERMANENT CURLING FLUID
Quicksilver 1 drachm.
Acqua fortis . 2 ounces,
dissolve; dilute before using to half its volume with an
equal volume of water. Care should be taken that neither
the liquid nor the moistened hair, until it has been sub-
sequently washed, touches the skin. The moistened hair
is loosely adjusted into the desired curls by the aid of
oiled curl papers (this was not done in my case) and per-
mitted to dry; after five or six hours, the hair is washed
and dried, and on being gently combed it will curl or wave.
The hair will retain the curl or wave four or five weeks.
In my own case it lasted a little over three, despite fre-
quent washings.
The process is highly objectionable, and cannot but be
injurious to the hair, although it seems at times to have
no immediate harmful effect on vigorous hair. It will per-
manently curl. I have proved that fact.
No. 1 — FIRST MOVEMENT IN SCALP MASSAGE
(119)
No. 2— MASSAGE GENTLY IN LINE OF PART
(120)
CHAPTER XII
SCALP MASSAGE
Gray hairs are death's blossoms. — Schiller.
^HEN the hair falls out or gets very dry and
breaks; when it is excessively oily; when the
roots are always damp from perspiration, there
is something wrong with the circulation.
As before stated, proper scalp massage will,
in many cases, bring back a normal circula-
tion, and this means that the hair will re-
ceive nourishment and ventilation which must stimulate
growth and arrest decline and decay.
In giving scalp massage, first loosen the hair and part
it in the center. Place the hands in the position shown
in the first picture and gently push the fingers into the
scalp and forward at the same time. Repeat this opera-
tion all over the head until every portion of the scalp has
been massaged.
The second movement is a rolling motion. As shown in
the second picture, the operator places the tips of the fingers
(121)
122 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
on the scalp and presses gently but firmly in a rotary motion.
This movement also must be repeated all over the scalp.
The third illustration shows the ripple movement. The
operator's hands are first held above the subject's head.
Then to make the movement the hands are brought
sharply down on the scalp, the fingers closing at the in-
stant they touch.
To relieve a nervous headache a stroking movement is
employed, always from the face toward the back of the
head, as indicated in the fourth picture.
Massage at the base of the brain, using the first two
movements, as here described, will frequently relieve the
congestive headaches from which so many persons who
lead sedentary lives suffer.
In brushing the hair make always a side stroke. Do
not brush the hair directly down from the roots. Brush
from the front, off the brow, as in the fifth illustration.
Part the hair down the center of the back and brush
from the scalp toward the front.
Scalp massage bids fair to supersede the old heroic
treatments for baldness or prospective baldness, and in
many cases where the hair falls out because of a nervous,
heated condition of the scalp, a single course of scalp mas-
sage will, without lotions or tonics, as they are called, re-
store the hair to health and vigor.
As in facial massage, great care should be taken in
choosing your masseuse. An iguorant operator can do
much harm, and unfortunately there are many who give
what they are pleased to call a scalp massage treatment
from which the unhappy victim derives no benefit, but
pays a good price for a positive injury.
No. 3 — THIRD MOVEMENT IN SCALP MASSAGE — RIPPLE MOVEMENT
(123)
No. 4— MASSAGE TREATMENT FOR HEADACHE
(124)
1
. ^ . ••'••. •:.\4 9 fflLBERT^^y
CHAPTER XIII
THE COMPLEXION
Thy complexion shifts to strange eflects.— Measure for Measure.
ixTY out of every one hundred American girls
have poor skins. When I say poor skins I am
trying to soften what seems to be a very harsh
statement.
What I really mean to say is, that out of
one hundred youthful faces taken at random
from any congregation of young people, at the
most generous estimate, about forty per cent, will be free
from the blemishes we all know and loathe, and are con-
tent to abide by and with — pimples and other equally
disgusting accompaniments of an ill-conditioned skin.
And this state of affairs exists despite the fact that
twenty millions of dollars are annually expended in the
United States for cosmetics, facial treatments and alleged
cures for an almost national defect.
(125)
126 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
American women are, as a rule, not stupid — yet they
,are singularly gullible on this one point.
/ Every thinking person must know that a bad skin is
the result of an internal disorder or external neglect.
External neglect may be summed up in one word — "un-
cleanliness." Internal troubles, I grieve to say, may be
too often fastened on the all-prevailing pie of our beloved
land.
When I say pie I generalize. I mean to include all
those soft, pasty, creamy, delectable stomach-destroyers
which the girls of to-day are offering to their stomachs
week in and week out, in place of food that will nourish
and produce red corpuscles instead of white.
Frequently I go to a dairy kitchen near my office for
a hurried luncheon, and I am always spellbound for the
first few moments by the apparently irresistible, swift-
recurring wave of pie-eating that pervades the entire
establishment.
Long ago our Puritan ancestors did some of us an evil
turn by way of saleratus bread and soda biscuit. Too
much saleratus will upset the best little stomach in the
world, and when a good little stomach is insulted day by
day, it retorts by throwing out through the blood, a lot
of nasty little pimples, with a sort of " Now, there ! "
And our grandmothers are somewhat to blame for the
unhealthy pallor they bequeathed our mothers, which was
caused by the bread of the ante-yeast period.
Nowadays we can get good, wholesome bread, even the
least of us — and girls, if you could but believe it, a six
months' course of bread-and-milk luncheons would so im-
THE COMPLEXION 127
prove most of your skins, as to make you the wonder of
all the neighborhood not in the secret.
If you were on the second floor of a dwelling house,
and a large spot appeared upon the ceiling, you would go
to the third floor and find out what had caused the dis-
coloration.
If you found your little sister seated on the floor di-
rectly over the spot peacefully and contentedly pouring
molasses in a steady stream out of a pretty molasses jug,
would you apply a kalsomine or a wash to the spot be-
low, or would you insist that nothing could remove the
discolored spot till the small girl above gave over pour-
ing molasses on the floor?
That is about the way it is.
Pie, Boston cream puffs, chocolate eclaires, and all the
rest of them. Oh! if you but knew the havoc they make
with your pretty little noses, your saucy chins, and inno-
cent brows. It is just the case of a little girl pouring
molasses on the floor above.
FOSSATI CREAM FOR PIMPLES
Lanolin 5 grammes.
Sweet almond oil 5 grammes.
Sulphur precipitate .... 5 grammes.
Oxide of zinc 2^ grammes.
Extract of violet 10 drops.
Apply a very little of the cream to the pimples ; wait until the pim-
ples are cured before using the face brush, which might irritate them.
Many women are troubled each Spring with an out-
break of pimples, and the skin of others turns a muddy,
yellowish, and disagreeable hue.
• A.— 7
128 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
The causes for both conditions are practically the
same. The subject has violated the rules of hygiene
through her diet. Tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, sweets,
pork, and buckwheat cakes are the things to leave off. A
regimen consisting of fruits, green vegetables, celery, water
cress, spinach, and the like, and just as much hot water as
can be comfortably drank, is the cure.
Sulphur soap is used frequently with good effect in
some cases. There are several good sulphur soaps procur-
able at any first-class drug store.
A celebrated French woman, noted for her beauty, de-
clares that she will cure any ordinary skin eruptions
known under the general term of "pimples," by vegetable
diet, saline purgatives, ointment of tar, and lanolin and
sulphur baths.
I indorse this regimen heartily, although I am obliged
to say that very few American women, in my opinion,
would follow it strictly and persistently long enough to
experience its good effect.
CHAPTER XIV
THE COMPLEXION — Continued
There's too great testimony in your complexion. — As You Like It.
^HOSE of my readers who are blessed with skins
''as clear as morning roses newly washed with
dew" can but faintly imagine the wretched-
ness of the girl or woman who, through no
fault of her own, awakens every day of her
life to the sickening realization that she is
unsightly — often really repulsive, because of
this disfiguring skin blemish called freckles. I suppose I
have seen and treated as many bad cases of skin disease
as any one other person in this country during the past
fifteen years, and the result of my experience is that all
skin troubles can be cured where there is no inherited
taint, and that even in these unfortunate cases the com-
plexion may be greatly improved. The least offensive of
these pigmentary discolorations is lentigo, or freckles.
(129)
130 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Certainly these brown, oval-shaped spots dotted about the
face and hands are not pretty, but they do not look un-
clean as blackheads do, nor do they reflect disease as
scrofulous pimples must, but they are disagreeable and
unpleasant.
Freckles are divided into two classes — summer freck-
les, which usually fall to the lot of fair-skinned light or
auburn-haired girls, and are produced almost instantly
on exposure to strong light, disappearing in a little while
if the subject remains indoors or in the shade. I make
this statement despite the testimony of the eminent Pro-
fessor of Dermatology, Doctor Hebra, of Vienna, who posi-
tively declares that neither strong sunlight or sharp winds
nor the two combined will produce freckles. Vienna
freckles may be able to resist a Vienna sun, but Yan-
kee freckles, such as I have had principally to encounter,
are beyond dispute brought to the surface of the skin by
intense sunlight and frequently by strong biting winds.
The other form of freckles is called cold or winter
freckles. These never disappear, except through external
agencies, and then only with the cuticle itself. 'For
"every-day" or summer freckles, a good treatment is as
follows: —
Bathe frequently with pure soap and water, use the
scrubbing brush as advised in Chapter V, and rub the
skin to an extent a little short of irritation. The advan-
tage of friction is not only that it assists in cleansing the
skin, but excites the cutaneous circulation. I have seen
many and many a freckled face scrubbed and rubbed clear
without other aids, but there are a number of simple
THE COMPLEXION 131
remedies which will hasten the cure. The most effective
of these to be employed in connection with the scrubbing
and dry friction are a cream or pomade to be used at
night just before retiring and a wash to be applied dur-
ing the day. The cream is made thus : —
FRECKLE CREAM
Elder flower ointment . . 1 ounce.
Sulphate of zinc .... 20 grains.
This pomade is easily absorbed by the skin and is ex-
cellent not only for the treatment of freckles, but also for
any of the lighter skin eruptions which frequently annoy
girls between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. In the
morning wash the ointment carefully out of the skin and
apply the following lotion. Repeat the application of the
lotion several times during the day.
FORMULA FOR LOTION
Infusion of roses .... 8 fluid ounces.
Citric acid . . . . . .30 grains.
Mix ; pour into a bottle, and keep closely stoppered. Should any
unpleasant irritation follow apply a healing lotion — formula on page 135.
Another highly commended freckle lotion is called
FRECKLE BALM
and is made as follows: —
Pure strained honey .... 8 ounces.
Glycerine 2 ounces.
Alcohol 2 ounces.
Citric acid 6 drachms.
Essence of ambergris ... 15 drops.
There is but one way to take away obstinate or cold
freckles, and that is to remove the discolored skin. The
132 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
following remedy for removing freckles was published in
the Medical Record some time ago. I have tried it in-
numerable times with entire success in every case. The
advantage of this preparation is in the fact that it con-
tains no corrosive sublimate which is the chief ingredient
in all the much-exploited freckle removers, bleaches, etc.,
on the market.
FORMULA FOR REMOVING OBSTINATE FRECKLES
Lactic acid 4 ounces.
Glycerine 2 ounces.
Rose water 1 ounce.
This is really a "bleach" in its effect, but it is entirely
harmless. You must not be surprised if it burns and causes
a temporary redness of the skin. It must do this to be
effective, for it is to remove the discolored skin. You can
allay the burning by applying any of the creams for which
formulas are given elsewhere, or prepare the following
which is especially soothing.
OINTMENT TO BE USED AFTER LOTION FOR REMOVING
FRECKLES
Oil of almonds 4 ounces.
White vaseline 3 ounces.
Spermaceti 1 ounce.
Melt, then add
Expressed juice of houseleeks . . 3 fluid ounces.
Tincture of benzoin 15 drops.
Stir until the mixture solidifies in cooling. Any desired perfume
may be added.
Marchand's hydrozone and glycozone treatment will re-
move freckles and pigmentary stains in general.
THE COMPLEXION 133
Get the pure article — one bottle each of hydrozone and
glycozone. The treatment is as follows: —
First. — Wash the surface well.
Second. — Hj means of a soft, camel's-hair brush (free from metal-
lic parts) apply to the skin, hydrozone full strength (or diluted with
water half and half). Let it dry. It causes a slight itching sensa-
tion which will soon pass away.
Third.— Rub the surface over gently with glycozone.
This treatment must be repeated morning and evening until the
natural color of the skin is reached.
From that time repeat the above, at least once or twice every
week, otherwise the trouble will surely return.
Wind and Sunburn
Spring winds and sun are disastrous to delicate skins,
and the results of exposure at this trying season of the
year frequently cling to fair faces throughout the entire
summer.
To prevent the discoloration and roughness induced by
the fiercely drying cold spring wind, it is well to wear a
veil until the weather is more settled and the air grows
balmy. A veil of chiffon is much more of a protection
than one would perhaps think, and has the advantage of
being very becoming, while it serves to cut the sharpness L^
of the air. A chapped face produced by spring winds, so
extremely uncomfortable when accompanied by a drawn
sensation, as though the skin were too tightly stretched,
will yield to the soothing effects of a very delightful and
softening unguent called "Venus Cream,'' for which I give
the formula; —
/
134 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
VENUS CREAM
Spermaceti (pure) ^ ounce.
White wax (pure) ..... ^ ounce.
Almond oil 1 pound.
Butter of cocoa ^ pound.
Lanolin 2 ounces.
Melt and stir in one drachm of balsam of Peru. After
settling, pour off the clear portion and add two fluid
drachms of orange flower water, and stir briskly until it
concretes.
After exposure to the sun and wind, wipe the face off
carefully with Venus Cream, using a bit of old linen or
flannel for the operation, which may be repeated, if neces-
sary, two or three times daily.
An hour or so after the application of the Yenus
Cream, it is well to bathe the face in tepid water. Use a
very little soap, if necessary. Where the skin is inclined
to become dry and scaly from exposure, the following may
be used with excellent results : —
Iodide of potassium ... 1 to 2 drachms.
Distilled water 1 pint.
Dissolve. Add one ounce pure glycerine.
Frequently the windburn or sunburn will darken the
face and throat in patches.
Calisthenic exercises persisted in daily until a free and
natural perspiration is produced, followed by warm ablu-
tions, and the application of this healing lotion, are of in-
estimable advantage in such cases, and all the treatment
usually required to keep the skin clear and smooth.
THE COMPLEXION 135
FORMULA FOR HEALING LOTION
Boracio acid 1 drachm.
Distilled witch hazel .... 2 ounces.
Rose water 2 ounces.
FOR WIND AND SUNBURN
For many skins the following lotion is almost a speci-
fic for wind and sunburn : —
The strained juice of ripe cucumbers . ^ cup.
Elder flower water , . ^ cup.
Rose water 1 cup.
Pure alcohol 1 drachm.
Boracio acid, in powder ...... ^ teaspoon.
Tincture of benzoin 30 drops.
Apply with a velvet sponge or soft cloth whenever required.
FOR TAN AND SUNBURN
An excellent preparation to remove tan and sunburn
may be made as follows : —
Borax 10 grains.
Lime water 2 ounces.
Oil of sweet almonds .... 2 ounces.
If the face become sore and show a tendency to peel off aftei
using the above lotion, apply every morning after washing the fol-
lowing : —
Chloride of ammonia .... 2 drachms.
Spirits of wine
Attar of roses (can be omitted)
Rose water
Venetian talc (fine powder)
2 ounces.
10 drops.
1 pint.
1 ounce.
136 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
MOTH PATCHES
For moth patches and liver spots, the following will be
found very beneficial : —
Kaolin 4 grammes.
Lanolin 10 grammes.
Glycerine 4 grammes.
Carbonate of magnesia ... 2 grammes.
Oxide of zinc 2 grammes.
This should be applied to the spots at night before retiring and
should remain on until the next morning. Remove by the aid of
tepid water and a little pure hygienic soap. Repeat the application
as often as necessary.
FORMULA FOR FACE BLEACH KNOWN TO COMMERCE
Bichloride of mercury in coarse powder . . 10 grains.
Distilled water 1 pint.
Agitate the two together until a complete solution is obtained.
Then add one -half ounce of glycerine. Apply with a small sponge
as often as agreeable. This is not strong enough to blister and skin
the face in average cases. It may be increased or reduced in strength
by adding to or taking from the amount of bichloride of mercury.
Do not forget that bichloride of mercury is a powerful
poison and should be kept out of the reach of children
and ignorant persons.
FOR YELLOW SPOTS ON THE SKIN
Oleate of copper 15 grains.
Ointment of oxide of zinc . . ^ ounce.
Hub into the spots morning and night,
CHAPTER XV
THE COMPLEXION — Continued
Out damned spot! out, I say! — Macbeth.
LACKHEADS are a form of acne indicated by lit-
tle black specks on the skin, chiefly about the
nose, forehead, and chin. Each speck marks
an obstructed outlet of the sebaceous glands,
and if pressure is made on either side, some-
thing having the appearance of a small white
worm may be pressed out. Upon careful ex-
amination this so-called worm proves to be a mass of
hardened sebaceous matter, which has assumed this shape
by being pressed through the small outlet of the follicle.
The black speck, giving to this little cylinder of fat the
appearance of a head, is, shocking as it is, simply an
accumulation of dirt. The technical term for one of
these little masses is comedo. When examined under a
microscope, they are frequently found to contain a whole
(137)
138 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
family of parasites — male, female, and their numerous
progeny.
Obviously there is but one way of getting rid of black-
heads, and that is by forcing them out of the clogged pore.
They cannot be drawn back whence they came, and in
pressing them out before the skin is properly softened and
prepared for their ejection, the patient must be very care-
ful not to rupture the delicate tissue, causing either an ugly
little scar or, more likely, an enlargement of the opening
which immediately fills up again, each time increasing in
size and becoming more malignant in appearance.
Blackheads may not only be removed without leaving
any scar, but once rid of them the patient need never
again be troubled with them, if the advice here given be
carefully followed.
For two or three weeks, until the skin is thoroughly
softened, apply one of the creams or skin foods, formulas
for which may be found in these pages. Make this appli-
cation at night, after washing the face well with a pure
hygienic soap and hot water. Be sure to rinse the soap
well out of the face and dry the skin thoroughly before
applying the cream or skin food.
At the end of two or three weeks of this treatment,
the blackhead may be forced out by pressure of the two
thumbs. If a moderate pressure will not eject it, make no
more heroic attempt, but try the green-soap treatment,
which rarely, if ever, fails.
Green soap may be purchased at any drug store, and,
by the by, is not green. It is about the consistency of a
custard.
I THE COMPLEXION 139
Before using the green soap, bathe the face in warm
water as hot as can be pleasantly borne. Then wring out
cloths in hot water and lay over the face, renewing them
frequently. Continue this operation for fifteen or twenty
minutes. Anoint the face with the green soap. Rub it
well into the pores for five or six minutes. Rinse the
soap from the face with hot water, using the cameFs-hair
face-scrubbing brush so as to remove all the soap and as
many of the blackheads as will come. Dry the face and
anoint it with a skin food or cream. Continue this treat-
ment every night until the blackheads have disappeared.
TREAtMENT FOR OBSTINATE BLACKHEADS
Occasionally very obdurate blackheads will require
pressure, but usually the green soap will remove them
without more heroic treatment.
Where the blackheads appear on the back, and also
upon the breasts, the same treatment is required. Soap
and water and friction, combined with an emollient, mean
death to blackheads. Apart also from the mere cleanli-
ness derived from the friction of the brush, it has the most
important effect of so stimulating the circulation that the
obstructed glands are opened, their stagnating contents
broken up, dissolved, and carried off.
NEW REMEDY FOR BLACKHEADS
Doctor Hebra, of Vienna, a world-renowned dermatolo-
gist, advises the following for curing blackheads: —
Bathe the face at night with the following lotion : Rose water,
pure alcohol and glycerine, 10 grains each ; pulverized borax, 5 grains.
140 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
After five minutes, apply this mixture : Pure alcohol, 80 grains ;
green soap, 40 grains. Wash off in the morning.
Acne appears under various forms and names. In con-
fluent acne, the pimples appear in groups, suppurating and
running together. A course of sulphur baths is recom-
mended. Friction and frequent bathing are advised, and
as soon as possible the camel's-hair face brush.
In acne indurata, the pimples appear to be under the
skin. The same treatment should be followed.
The use of a camel's-hair face-scrubbing brush cannot
be too strongly recommended.
It removes from the face the dust and foreign matter
that has collected there during the day, and it penetrates
and dislodges from the pores of the skin any secretions
that may have become clogged there.
I do not believe any one can keep the face clean, ex-
cept by the aid of a brush.
A pure soap will not hurt the most delicate skin. On
the contrary, it is a necessary detergent, and the women
who have the most beautiful complexions in the world —
notably English women — are those who have scrubbed
their faces with soap and water from childhood.
Its use should not be restricted to women. As a mat-
ter of fact, the male epidermis differs in no respect from
the female, except possibly that it is tougher. Both are
equally benefited by the use of the face-scrubbing brush.
Your stalwart six-footer may not long for the pink and
white cheeks of the dainty sixteen year-old girl, yet he
will surely appreciate the exquisite feeling of cleanliness
and freshness which follows the scrubbing process. I have
THE COMPLEXION 141
also been informed that the use of the brush is an excel-
lent means of softening the beard before shaving.
Acne molluscum usually appears on the forehead and
about the nose. It has the aspect of tiny seed pearls im-
bedded in the skin, and is due to the obstruction of the
sebaceous glands, which, unable to rid themselves of their
contents, become distended, and hardened.
TREATMENT FOR ACNE MOLLUSCUM
Open each seed acne with the point of a fine cambric needlec
The hardened mass must be pressed or pricked out. The empty sack
of the gland should then be bathed with a little toilet vinegar and water,
or with a very weak solution of carbolic acid and water.
CHAPTER XVI
THE COMPLEXION — Continued
Men judge by the complexion, — Richard II.
iMPLES and eczema are the most repulsive of skin
ailments. An eruption of any kind on the face
is fatal to beauty.
Beauty usually first inspires love, but it is
certain that cleanliness is a great factor in its
preservation, and also, I am bound to say once
more, no woman suffering from any one of the
common forms of skin disease ever looks really clean.
For years it has been my habit to take a mental note
of the skin diseases and blemishes of women and girls, and
I have found that about only thirty in a hundred have
really healthy, firm-looking skins, frequently with freckles,
which are not unclean looking. The other seventy are
pimply and unsightly from eczema, acne, or blackheads, or
both.
(142)
THE COMPLEXION 143
At the risk of being tiresome and regarded by my
readers as a persistent crank, I am bound to say that I do
honestly believe uncleanliness is the chief cause of the
unsightly faces in every assemblage, on the streets and at
home, in town and country. Perhaps I should qualify
this statement by saying that a mistaken idea of cleanli-
ness prevails, and that a mere bath every day is not suffi-
cient to entitle one to be called absolutely clean.
The skin is constantly undergoing the process of repro-
duction and decay, — constantly secreting and endeavoring
to throw off the decayed and useless matter. The skin of
the face throws off its dead and useless scurf in tiny, dust-
like particles. If these little specks of dead cuticle are
removed daily by friction and a detergent, the channels
are kept open and disease cannot, unless inherited or con-
tagious, attack the face. Unfortunately, our American
climate, with its sudden changes, too frequently checks
the flow of perspiration which, unrestrained, would of it-
self carry off the dead matter. The consequence of the
arrested effort to free the pores is congestion, and the re-
sult is a skin obstructed and positively loaded with adher-
ing refuse matter, which is not only filthy, but actually
poisonous in its effects when forced back into the blood.
I wish that I could personally see every woman who
reads this book, and tell her by word of mouth of
the quantities of filth which will accumulate in the pores
of the skin of the face in a month's time ; of the hideous
cases of skin diseases which have been the despair of
women and girls, and which have, in the course of a few
months of proper cleansing and friction, yielded and given
A— 8
144 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
way to beautiful, satiny complexions, free from every
blemish.
I have not much confidence in my own powers of elo-
quence, but it seems to me I could not fail, in relating
the actual histories taken from my ow^n daily observation,
to impress my convictions, which are really the result of
years of experience, that uncleanliness and a misunder-
standing of what that word means, are the chief causes
of our disfigured skins. Physical cleanliness must be so
active that all corporeal impurities are thrown off through
its agencies, cutaneous eruptions removed, and the entire
surface of the body made as pure and smooth and bright
as in infancy. No simple washing or bathing will do
this, though such ablutions be performed six times a day.
There is no purification of the skin and no cure for dis-
eases resulting from obstructed pores, in my opinion, ex-
cept through water and soap and friction.
I cite an actual instance which lately came under my
observation.
A young Swedish girl, a housemaid in a hotel where I
was living, was a repulsive object from a skin disease
which appeared at first glance to be erysipelas. Her face
was covered with groups of white-headed pimples in vari-
ous stages of suppuration ; her cheeks, nose, and chin were
the color of a bright red cranberry; and the entire skin
appeared stretched and shiny, as it will on a boil when
gathering. The girl was an excellent servant, but several
of the guests complained to the housekeeper that she was
positively offensive to them, and she was about to be dis-
charged when I spoke gently to her of her complexion,
THE COMPLEXION 145
and she told me, with a burst of tears, how she had suf-
fered for years from the hideous disease. She said she
had tried many advertised remedies, but had given up in
despair as they had made her face worse than ever. I
prescribed a course of treatment for her, which included
washing her face daily several times with soda and water
and a very pure, healing soap. In a month she was able
to use a camel's-hair face brush with soap. The treat-
ment was practically the one I have already recom-
mended, consisting of a healing cream used at night, and
a cooling lotion during the day, and now eight months
from the time I first undertook the cure of ''Helma B,"
her face is as smooth and fair as a child's — every pimple
and spot has disappeared, and she herself in referring to
it says: "For sure, now when I look in the glass I all
the time smile, and for sure one year ago when I look in
the glass I all the time cry.''
Helma's case was an unusually bad and disgusting one,
but it was simply a neglected case of acne. A great many
people do not discriminate between acne and eczema.
Eczema, in its simplest form, is a disease characterized
by the eruption of a great number of small blister-headed-
looking little pimples clustered together in patches, usually
confined to one part of the body at a time. The pimples
are accompanied by intense itching, and the result of
scratching is to tear the thin, inflamed cuticle and to so ir-
ritate it that it suppurates and dries, leaving, after the crust
has fallen, a little red mark upon the skin which is either
dry, or, in some cases, wet, with a thin, milky-looking
discharge which exudes from a tiny opening in the center
146 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
of the pimple. This discharge often ceases in a few days,
but is frequently followed by a fresh crop of pimples and
again by another, so that the disease frequently runs on
for months, — one patch healing as another reappears.
Chronic or acute eczema is simple eczema in its most
aggravated form, and if not checked results in hideous
running sores and abscesses and excessive suffering. The
causes of eczema are frequently very obscure. It is often
inherited, and w^hen this is the case, it is seldom possible
to do more than palliate it or hold it in check. It fre-
quently attacks the face, but usually first appears on the
hands, the itching being so severe at times as to throw
the patient almost into convulsions. Children suffer fre-
quently from eczema of the face, and the subjects to this
malady of all ages are apt to be attacked with it in the
eyelids or the ears.
I knew a very beautiful and high-bred woman, now
peacefully resting in the tomb of her Knickerbocker an-
cestors, who was obliged to dress her hair so that her ears
were covered, because they were absolutely offensive from
inherited eczema. I have often thought of her since I
have learned to know that all forms of skin diseases, if
not actually curable, may be greatly ameliorated, and of
the agony she suffered in the knowledge that she was, to
use her own words to me, " a living ulcer with a long line
of intermarried dead ulcers back of her."
Hideous, indeed, is the legacy of scrofula and inex-
orable the laws of transmission, but even inherited skin
diseases may be greatly palliated and the external signs
kept in subjection.
THE COMPLEXION 147
Eczema sometimes appears in girls between the ages
of fourteen and sixteen, — and is most annoying to sensi-
tive cliildren. It can, unless inherited, always be con-
trolled by attention to the general principles of health
— cleanliness, exercise, proper diet, clothing, and ventila-
tion. Eczema patients, old and young, should never use
stimulants in any form ; they should take daily bafchs and
be most particular as to the regularity of all the import-
ant bodily functions. Occasionally doses of mild saline
aperients such as cream of tartar, sulphate of soda, or
the old-fashioned remedy of lac sulphur and cream of
tartar mixed in equal quantities with enough molasses
to form a creamy paste and taken three times a day
for three days running, then omitted for three, then
resumed for three, will be found of wonderful benefit.
Let the patient drink freely of lemonade and avoid
salt meats, pork in any form, and live upon a diet of
fruits, red meats, and antiscorbutic vegetables. Many
people are particularly susceptible to shellfish, and I
have seen a case of eczema follow in several instances
the eating of lobster. Strawberries will frequently pro-
duce this effect. Of course when there is an idiosyn-
crasy of this kind, the cause should be avoided. Vigorous
exercise will often, by inducing excessive perspiration,
act as a curative for eczema, particularly when com-
bined with the application of a harmless external appli-
cation.
Take great care in selecting the cream or emollient. I
have seen most disastrous results from the reckless use
of much-vaunted articles.
148 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
The following lotion is highly recommended by Doctor
Cazenave : —
Orange -flower water . . . 300 grammes.
Nitric acid ...... 20 drops.
Hydrochloric acid .... 20 drops.
Doctor Monin recommends this lotion for eczema of
the face, and suggests about the same diet I have advised,
with the aid of sulphur or soda baths. Just as soon as it
is possible to bear the camel's-hair brush on the face, it
should be used.
POMADE FOR ECZEMA
Salicylic acid 1 gramme.
Oxide of zinc (powdered)
Powdered starch '
Lanolin . 30 grammes.
Vaseline 10 grammes.
Bichloride of mercury, which is corrosive sublimate, is an active
poison, quite proper to be used as here given and in the quantity
ordered.
LOTION FOR ECZEMA, PIMPLES AND ERUPTIONS OF THE
SKIN GENERALLY— (Cooley)
Corrosive sublimate (in coarse powder) . 10 grains.
Distilled water 1 pint.
Agitate them together until solution be complete. The addition
of five or six grains of hydrochlorate ammonia (pure sal ammoniac) or
five or six drops (not more) of hydrochloric acid, increases the solvent
action of the water, and renders the preparation less liable to suffer
change, but is not otherwise advantageous. When absolutely pure
distilled water is not used, this addition of acid should be made to
prevent decomposition. To facilitate the process, some persons dissolve
the sublimate in two or three fluid drachms of rectified spirit before
adding the water ; but this, though convenient, is also unnecessary.
THE COMPLEXION 149
FOR A BAD SKIN
Zinc ointment, 2 ounces ; alcohol, 1^ drachms ; resorcin, 1 scruple.
Rub this into the skin every night. If the face is very much irritated,
use this lotion during the day : Oxide of zinc, 2 drachms ; glycerine,
4 drachms ; rose water, 2 ounces. Apply once or twice, or even three
times daily, if required. It is very soothing.
BROCO FORMULA FOR ECZEMA
This preparation I have used with the greatest success
in severe cases of facial eczema: —
Salicylic acid, from 50 centigrammes to 2 grammes, according to
the severity of the case.
Oxide of zinc and pulverized cornstarch, 34 grammes each.
Lanolin 40 grammes.
Vaseline 10 grammes.
Mix with care in the mortar, until a smooth paste is formed. Ap-
ply at night and wash off in the morning.
LOTION FOR ECZEMA OF THE EYELIDS
Red laurel water 20 grammes.
Glycerine 5 grammes.
Acetic acid in crystals. . . 20 centigrammes.
Apply to the eyelids daily ; make the application with a small
camel's-hair brush.
FOR CHRONIC ECZEMA
Doctor Schmitz, a German skin specialist, tells of very
successful use of the follov^ing mixture for chronic
eczema : —
Pure glycerine 120 grammes.
Resorcin 15 grammes.
Apply night and morning by the aid of a featheri
150 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
CAMPHORATED SOAP FOR ECZEMA
Where the subject is very nervous, and is afflicted also
with rheumatism, bathing with the soap for which I give
formula will often relieve the eczema, which sometimes
accompanies this malady: —
Paste of bitter almonds. ... 60 grammes.
Saturated tincture of benzoin. . 40 grammes.
Pulverized gum camphor. . . 8 grammes.
White castile soap 500 grammes.
Melt the soap and add the other ingredients. Beat thoroughly
and pour into soap molds.
CHAPTER XVII
THE COMPLEXION — Continued
Bid them wash their faces. — Coriolanus.
HE general public will perhaps be astonished to
learn that, according to many renowned der-
matologists, it is the exceptional woman who
knows, until she has been taught, how to wash
her face, and that most of the ordinary skin
ailments are the results of an ignorance of the
skin structure of the face and of a most re-
stricted idea as to what real physical purity of the skin
means.
Some years ago, I organized a class for the pur-
pose of teaching a group of fashionable women how to
wash their faces. Of course they were, as every member
of the beau sexe is, intensely interested in such vital mat-
ters as the beauty of their complexions, and how to prop-
erly and hygienically care for their charming countenances.
(151)
152 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
I quote from an article which appeared in a New York
paper after the first lesson had been given.
"Standing beside a large dressing table supplied with
ewer, basin, hot-water kettle, and upon one corner of which
were heaped Turkish mittens, face scrubbing brushes, and
a pyramid of delicately scented soaps, the leader of this
new cult said : 'I take it for granted that no woman
present is positively satisfied with the condition of her
skin or she would not be here, and I ask every one's par-
don when I say that as a nation, we do not have beauti-
ful complexions mainly because we have never learned
the scientific way of keeping the pores of the skin cover-
ing our faces free, and that if we do not aid the channels
with which Nature has supplied us to throw off the ac-
cumulations of effete and useless matter, by friction and
a detergent, they become choked, these thousands of won-
derful ducts intended as respiratory or breathing organs
of the marvelous skin structure, and as a result each lit-
tle useful pore is clogged with the sebaceous matter which
it should and would throw off, mingled with the oils and
salts of perspiration. The functions of the skin are par-
tially suspended and the result, as in all cases of conges-
tion, is disease.
"'I am going now,' said the instructor, 'to show you
the way the average gentlewoman washes her face, just
as I washed mine up to a few years ago; and I doubt not
just as you washed yours this morning,' and with a smile,
the bodice of the tailor-made gown, the linen chemisette,
and cuffs were unfastened, and laid aside, and the professor
pf face scrubbing stood revealed iij the dainty bat simple
THE COMPLEXION 153
lingerie of the fastidious and patrician woman who is
femme de race, as the French say, to her finger tips.
''A little burst of laughter and applause greeted the
change of costume, and a shout of merriment proceeded
from the class as the face washer poured about a quart of
water into a bowl, added a few drops of perfume, and
then, taking a bit of soft old linen about the size of a
small handkerchief, wet it coquettishly in the liquid, and
with lightest touch proceeded to dabble her face most
gingerly, and immediately after to as carefully dry it as
though it were a Dresden figure with lace ruffles.
*' ' Now,' she said when she had finished, ' is this not a
fair example of the way we wash our faces ? ' and the
women laughed aloud and cried : ' Yes, indeed, that's
taken from life.' ' You are quite right,' etc., for they
saw those brushes and knew in a measure what was com-
ing, and how utterly absurd the little rag looked as an
argument for cleanliness, against the heap of searching
bristles.
" ' When,' said Mrs. Ayer, ' you can keep your hands, or
your arms, or the bit of lace at your throats, clean,—
sweetly, scrupulously clean, by a rag and a little tepid
water, the same method will answer for your faces. Now
I am going to show you how to really free the face from
all superficial impurities, from the dust of this morning,
the superfluous and frequently abnormal flow of oil from
the glands, and the dead particles of the scurf skin which
is always changing, always renewing itself, and can only
be gotten quite rid of by friction. And also, I may add,
by this very stimulant — the result of the friction — the
154 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
clogged pores throw off the hardened secretions and the
skin responds as the breathing cells of the leaves of a
plant to the assistance we shall give it.' Mrs. Aver now
poured from the ewer of hot water as much as a large
washbowl would hold, and, pinning back her loose locks
of hair from brow and neck, she took a face scrubbing
brush, dipped it into the hot water, rubbed it vigorously
with a cake of soap, and, bending over the bowl, she
scrubbed her face and throat with amazing vigor.
*^'For goodness sake,' cried one young Knickerbocker
matron, 'she'll take every bit of skin off.' 'I'd just as
soon attack my classic features with a nutmeg grater,'
said a second. ' No human woman can stand such a
barbaric process,' cried a lady of sixty ; but the teacher
of face washing only smiled, emptied the basin, filled it
with fresh hot water, and, dipping a soft Turkish mitten
into it, proceeded to carefully wash again, saying as she
did so, 'I am now rinsing the soap out, for it is just as
harmful to clog the skin with soap as with any other
foreign matter.'
" Once more the water was emptied, this time the basin
was filled with cooler water ; a fresh mitten, another rins-
ing, then the drying process with a linen towel, and after-
wards with a roguish look, the instructor said : —
'' * If there be any one present who feels that I have not
exhibited the courage of my convictions, she has the
floor,' but only laughter greeted her remark. Then she
rearranged her hair and dress, and, throwing wide the
shutter so that the bright April sun flooded the room,
she asked the pupils to come to the light and see how
THE COMPLEXION 155
free from irritation her skin was. The class in a body
hastened to accept the invitation. They critically exam-
ined the face of the leader of the new school of philoso-
phy, and were satisfied. Seeing was believing, and the
subscribers to the face-washing class meekly accepted a
brush, cake of soap, and a Turkish mitten, and departed
to return the following week to report their experiences,
and to learn how to use the electric battery, and to ob-
tain a few points in crow's-feet."
Face Steaming
Women accustomed to a daily scrub, which includes
the face, rarely are benefited by the steaming process.
The fad, like many another, is a passing one, but it is
worthy of a word of caution.
Face steaming is supposed to open the pores of the
skin, and during the operation, we are assured, that all
foreign matter, dust, and clogged secretions, are expelled.
A spasmodic cleansing of the face which requires daily
friction to remove all extraneous substances from it, is,
first of all, illogical ; and I have found that face steaming
frequently leaves the cuticle dry and parched even when
the operation is performed under the most favorable cir-
cumstances, which, of course, is in one's own home, where
the patient may remain some hours at least before expo-
sure to the outer atmosphere.
An occasional face steaming in one's own dressing room
will do no harm, but it is trifling with a very precious
possession to subject the face to the heat of the steamer.
156
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
and, within an hour or so, to a chilling wind or a frosty,
penetrating cold.
The Austrian women are noted for their fine complex-
ions. They use quantities of hot water on their faces, not
only in bathing, but they dip cloths in hot water and ap-
ply them. My experience leads me to believe the cloths
more efficacious than the steamer; they have also the
additional advantage of not being painful to the eyes as
the steam is.
To those women who persist in steaming, I suggest
that no apparatus is required. A chafing dish or even a
teakettle, with a funnel placed in the spout, will do. The
water must boil and the subject cover her head and focus
the steam wherever she desires.
The following lotion is very agreeable to use after
face steaming, particularly if the skin seem tender and
appear very red : —
LOTION (Pol Vernon)
Rose water ....*. 900 grammes.
Tincture myrrh .
Tincture opopanax
Tincture benzoin
Essence of citron
10 grammes.
10 grammes.
10 grammes.
4 grammes.
Tincture of quillaia, sufficient quantity to make an emulsion.
CHAPTER XVHI
THE COMPLEXION — Continued
Let it Stamp wrinkles in her brow of yonth.. — King Lear.
ECHNicALLY, a Wrinkle is a looseness of the skin,
caused by the failure or attenuation of the
under structure. This definition, however, ap-
plies only to such of the lines in the human
face as are formed in extreme age by the de-
generation of the muscle as well as by impair-
ment of the fatty tissue. It is a mistake to
suppose that all wrinkles indicate old or advanced age. It
is a fallacy to suggest that wrinkles and lines are not in-
dications of temperament and character. We are each
one accountable for the lines and crow's-feet on our faces,
for they are the most faithful and unerring record of our
past.
The muscular contractions of the brow or cheek cause
the lines, and it is fortunate that there are among them
those that indicate good and beautiful attributes.
(157)
158 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
When you see a man or a woman with a wrinkled
face, you may be very sure that every line is a telltale.
The lines that indicate a sense of humor are easily enough
recognized, even in early youth. T\i^j are never unpleas-
ant. They are not the lines of a silly simpering girl, who,
unless she mends her ways and ceases to giggle, will de-
velop into a woman who is accompanied through life by
an idiotic grin.
It is absolutely impossible for a woman of charity, be-
nevolence, and humanity to look like an avaricious or
spiteful woman. . When you see a woman with a spiteful
face, you may be certain her countenance but reflects her
character.
The lines that indicate a love of gossip are very read-
ily recognized. There is a certain droop to the mouth
which a woman's face will always take on just after she
has asked if you have heard the latest about Mrs. So and So.
It does not need any explanation from me to describe
the lines that tell the story of an irritable, fretful nature.
They are always drooping, just as mirthful, happy lines
are upward curves.
The lines in the face that indicate revenge are also
always drooping and malicious looking. In such cases,
there is usually a line from the nose to the lower corner
of the mouth, and several fine oblique lines upon the
broad part of the nose.
A cynical face is marked by an upward sneering line
at the mouth corners, and usually by the network of small
lines which indicate a general contempt for persons and
things.
^ ^
CO
LJ
_l
z
S
Q
Z
<
CO
LiJ
_y -
ANATOMICAL CHART SHOWING FACIAL MUSCLES
1. Frontalis muscle.
2. Occipitalis muscle.
3. Orbicularis Palpebrarum muscle.
4. Orbital portion of the Orbicularis
Palpebrarum.
5. Compressor Naris muscle.
6. Depressor Alae Nasi muscle.
7. Orbicularis Oris muscle.
(160)
Levator Labii Superioris muscle.
Levator Aniiuli Oris muscle.
Zygomaticus Major. |
Zygomaticus Minor. vMaUier muscles.
Platysma Myoides. j
Descending portion of Platysma
Myoides.
14.
15.
1(5.
18.
19.
20.
21.
Depressor Labii Inferioris.
Depressor Anguli Oris.
Levator Menti.
Temporal muscle.
Masseter muscle.
Sterno-mastoid muscle.
Trapezius muscle.
THE COMPLEXION 161
The talker's wrinkles commence in and near the lower
cheek, and run down under the chin from side to side.
The straight up and down lines furrowed in the brow
denote sternness and sharpness.
Horizontal lines across the forehead are an indication
of a conscientious struggle to do right.
Diagonal lines, crisscrossed in the middle of the brow,
mean small frets and worries.
After sixty, one should expect wrinkles. Up to that
time they may properly be considered premature. I do
not hesitate, to say, however, that the treatment necessary
for their obliteration is largely a moral one. For exam-
ple, I do not believe it possible by any external agency to
eradicate malicious wrinkles until after the subject has
reformed her ways, nor do I think revengeful lines will
yield to massage.
In other words, it comes to this — that an ill-tempered
woman cannot have the lines provoked by her lack of
amiability taken away until she ceases to exercise the
muscles that reflect her thoughts and have caused these
lines.
A good woman cannot possibly look like a bad one,
and a bad one, over thirty-five years of age, in my opin-
ion has never looked like a saint.
The general treatment for wrinkles which have been
induced by illness and care or anxiety, is great cleanli-
ness, nutritious food, out-of-door exercise, and the internal
cultivation of an equable temper and a happy spirit.
Whatever tends to promote the general health and to
increase the deposit of fat in the skin tissues of the face,
A.-9
162 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
tends to obliterate lines and wrinkles, and to restore the
firmness and beauty of the skin. Attention to the diet is
of the utmost importance, and massage is of great benefit.
Properly administered, there is no agent so successful
in obliterating lines and wrinkles, as massage. There have
been a number ot mechanical appliances invented and
manufactured to take the place of manual massage. I
advise the manual treatment whenever it is possible to
secure it.
Electricity is a great skin stimulant and therefore an
important adjunct to massage.
Where the skin is dry and wrinkled as well, it requires
a tissue builder. For this purpose the skin food is better
than any other emollient I know of. The skin food should
be applied during the massage. Formula as follows: —
White wax
. 1 ounce.
Spermaceti
. 1 ounce.
Lanolin ....
. 2 ounces.
Sweet almond oil .
. 4 ounces.
Cocoanut oil
. 2 ounces.
Benzoin (tincture)
. 3 drops.
Orange flower water .
. 2 ounces.
Melt the first five ingredients together, take off the fire, and beat
until nearly cold, adding, little by little, the benzoin, and lastly the
orange flower water.
A New Cure for Wrinkles
A so-called new method for obliterating wrinkles and
furrows, which as usual turns out to be a revival and
modification of an old one, is termed the bandeaux system.
THE COMPLEXION 163
As the name implies, the treatment is performed by
the aid of bandages.
According to a famous French authority the marks of
age noticeable in the shrinking of the fatty tissues under
the chin and that are such a source of misery to each
woman, as well as the creases in the brow and the droop
of the mouth, may be indefinitely warded off if the sub-
ject will each night wear during her sleeping hours a set
of bands especially devised for obliterating the ravages of
time from the forehead and throat.
These bands resemble very much those that form the
under part of the headdress of the Sisters of Mercy or
Charity.
In Paris, where the new system is flourishing, they may
be bought readily, and I have seen several sets that have
been imported to this country, although I do not think
they are yet for sale in America.
They are made of firm white linen and are about three
and a half inches broad after they are folded several
times and ready for adjusting.
A set of beauty bands consists of three strips each for
chin and brow.
Before binding the face it must be thoroughly washed
and anointed with an ointment called Pommade Grecque,
which is made as follows : —
POMMADE GRECQUE
Lanolin 2 ounces.
White vaseline 2 ounces.
Good cold cream .... 1 ounce. Mix.
164 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
It is important that the skin under the bands be
smoothed out by the hand before applying the bandage.
If the linen be stretched over a fold or wrinkle, it will
naturally do great damage, as it will make the wrinkle
more deeply seated and much more diflBcult to eradicate.
In the morning the bandages are taken off and the neck
and face are first washed with a pure soap and warm water.
Then use this lotion, which is made as follows : —
AURORA LOTION
Rose water 125 grammes.
Glycerine 50 grammes.
Alcohol 50 grammes.
Tincture of benzoin ... 50 grammes.
Boric acid 25 grammes.
Dissolve the boric acid first in the alcohol, add the glycerine, then
the rose water, and last of all the tincture of benzoin.
Warts and Moles
These blemishes are sometimes merely pigmentary,
sometimes both pigmentary and hairy. They may be
elevated above the skin, or level with it. Usually they
are congenital, and are then known as yicevi or birth-
marks, but, in some circumstances, they develop in
childhood or even later. The coloring matter which con-
stitutes them is deposited in the deeper portion of the
subcuticle, so that a scar usually results if they are re-
moved either by the knife or by the actual cautery — hot
iron. Ligature by means of a silk or silver thread tightly
wound round the root of the excrescence is a method
applicable to large pendent warts, which, thus treated,
THE COMPLEXION 165
shrivel and drop off, when the base can be cauterized
with a nitrate of silver stick. Common v^arts without a
pedicle, may be removed by repeated applications of
strong acetic acid, nitric acid, caustic potash, lunar caustic
in pencil, tincture of chloride of iron and hydrochloric
acid. In applying any of these remedies, care must be
taken not to touch with them the surrounding skin, else
a stain or scar may result. It is best to isolate the wart
or mole before putting on the caustic, by spreading a thin
layer of soft wax or spermaceti over the adjacent surface.
All the agents enumerated are liable, it must be borne in
mind, to leave permanent marks behind them, and, in case
of moles on the face, these marks may after all prove to
be more disfiguring than the original blemish.
Children and young people who suffer from abnor-
mally moist hands sometimes have multiple warts of
various sizes on the fingers or hands. In the treatment
of these the internal administration of arsenic and other
medicines is often advisable, combined with the local ap-
plication of a paste made of precipitated sulphur, glacial
acetic acid, and glycerine in equal parts. This paste
must be freshly made at the time of using, and spread
over the warts. But the best of all treatment of moles,
warts, and other pigmentary or excrescent blemishes is
electrolysis. The mode of operation is the same as that
just described in the case of superfluous hairs, only that
when applied to solid growths of skin more than one sit-
ting is invariably necessary, and the duration of the gal-
vanic action should be continued as long at a time as it
is found bearable.
166 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
BIRTHMARKS
"Port wine" marks, which usually are amenable to
no other treatment, may be removed in a similar manner,
so also may ncevi of other kinds, liver stains, obstinate
freckles, and even local skin disease, when independent of
general ill health. Affections of the cuticle characterized
by thickening or infiltration are those which best lend
themselves to the influence of the galvanic current. The
powerful modification thus produced on the circulation,
absorption, and nutrition of the tissue may even, Dr. de
Watteville thinks ("Practical Introduction to Medical
Electricity"), be brought to bear successfully on such
forms of dermal affection as acne, eczema, neurotic bald-
ness, chilblains, and herpes.
Electrolysis is especially valuable as a cure for cutane-
ous vascular formations, whether congenital or acquired.
This kind of skin complaint is not uncommon, often ap-
pearing in mature life and in connection with acne or
some other generalized affection of the kind. It consists
of patches of dilated blood vessels situated in the subcu-
taneous tissues, irregular in shape, and varying in color
from dark purple to bright pink. These patches may ap-
pear singly or in numbers on any part of the face or per-
son, but they are most commonly seen on the nose or
cheek. Their aspect is that of a fine network of dis-
tended veins, tortuous and serpentine in appearance, and
more or less distinctly outlined. The affected part often
burns and assumes a shiny look. Vascular marks of this
character, whether recent or congenital, can be entirely
THE COMPLEXION 173
tics, and perhaps electricity to strengthen the weakened
muscles. There have, indeed, been cures of seemingly
hopeless paralysis, by massage, continuously, systematically,
and scientifically given.
If a shrunken arm may be restored to symmetry and
perfect contour, why not a shrunken cheek? Obviously one
result is as logical as the other. The great difficulty is
that in treating an arm or leg we follow our physician's
advice and secure a scientific masseur; but for some inex-
plicable reason, we trust our faces, whose delicate anatomy
and muscular structure we know next to nothing about
ourselves, to the first woman whose sign " facial treat-
ment " or " facial massage " meets our eyes on the street,
and who is just one degree more ignorant than we our-
selves.
No woman is competent to give beneficial massage to
the face unless she has studied its anatomy, knows every
nerve and muscle in its construction, and has practiced
the giving of facial gymnastics for at least a twelvemonth
under one of the professors of the Swedish school.
I suppose I am acquainted with nearly every so-called
method of giving so-called massage in this country. It is
utter nonsense to talk of different methods. There is
only one real way of properly administering true facial
gymnastics, and that is after the school founded by the
great Ling, the originator of the system. Where a woman
can afford to employ a skillful masseuse of course she
should do so. First-class Swedish graduates receive nat-
urally good pay for their services, and but recently have
been unwilling to give facial treatments alone, but there
174 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
are two or three experts in this line who now give the
facial treatment at prices not high when the quality of
the service rendered is considered.
Frequently, however, to a woman who needs facial
massage, even one dollar is far beyond her means, and in
such cases the subject may do the work herself on her
own face — and it is work and not play, let it be under-
stood, and fatiguing work, too, when properly done.
The word massage is derived from the Greek masso, to
knead. It does not, as many alleged operators appear to
consider, mean to pinch, or punch, or bruise, or beat the
tender flesh and nerves until the victim is as sore as a
pugilist after a prize fight.
Before a woman gives herself massage, she should
study the plate given in this book, showing the muscular
construction of the face and throat, and she should recol-
lect that the muscles must be developed by the exercise
— which is given them in the various motions. All the
important facial and throat muscles are manipulated, the
operator anointing her fingers with a tissue or skin-
feeding unguent, or skin food, which has usually a basis
of lanolin, because of its penetrating qualities, and is
gently rubbed into the skin. It is quite wonderful to see
how gratefully the skin accepts nourishment in this way.
I am never tired of watching and marveling at the sen-
sibility, the responsiveness, and the power of its resist-
ance.
The skin combines within itself the powers of an
organ of excretion, secretion, respiration, and nutrition.
After it has absorbed the skin food it requires, it will
MASSAGE FOR DEVELOPING MAHLER OR CHEEK MUSCLES
(176)
THE COMPLEXION 177
accept no more for the time being, and the operator may
commence the smoothing oat process. All lines should
be smoothed out — that is, they should be treated with
the thumb and forefinger in an opposite direction to their
formation. My own masseuse says: — ^
''In giving massage, the patient's face is first bathed
in warm water and carefully dried with a soft towel. I
use a little cream or skin food to anoint my fingers dur-
ing the treatment."
The first picture shows the movement for obliterating
horizontal lines and furrows in the brow.
This is the rotary motion, as shown in the diagram.
It is reversed in the work on the brow, but always back-
ward on the temples.
It has been well said that a woman cannot afford to
shed many tears after she is five and twenty, or if she
does it will be at the expense of the beauty of her eyes,
as the lachrymal glands are relaxed by weeping and the
orbicular tissues (the orbicularis is the circular muscle of
the eyelid) become emaciated, causing the disfigurement
known as drooping eyelids, and nothing but the most skill-
ful manipulation can restore the contour of those delicate
tissues.
This movement is shown in the illustration and dia-
gram No. 2 "to remove a droop in the eyelid." The
movement is made with the third finger only of either
hand, and is vibratory.
Illustration No. 3 shows the movement for removing
laughing wrinkles. Laughing wrinkles are not disagree-
able, but they certainly make a woman look older.
178 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
The temporal muscle is the one to be operated upon.
The muscle is fan shaped. Its fibers arise from the apo-
neurosis of the forehead. The operator must exercise
great skill and care to locate this muscle, giving it the
proper rptary movement, thus forcing the blood to the
surface, w^hich will nutrify and rebuild the fatty tissues
and restore the temple and nasal contour.
No. 4 shoves the proper movement for developing the
predominating muscle of the face. The principal muscle
of the cheek, called the trumpeter's muscle, is a flat mus-
cle v^hich forms the wall of the cheek. It derives its
name from its being much used in blowing the trumpet.
But several other muscles enter into its formation, and
these become relaxed from a disorganized system, sluggish
blood, and many other causes. The glands shrink, the
fatty tissues emaciate, and then we have sunken cheeks.
The operator must know how to locate these muscles,
beginning at the origin of the trumpeter's muscle and
manipulating upward to the predominating muscle above
the ear, finishing the work on this muscle with the rotary
movement which wall force the circulation through the re-
laxed muscles, invigorate and rebuild the tissues. This
movement, in connection with the manipulation of the
mahler or cheek muscles, will completely obliterate the
lines of care, but in giving these movements, special at-
tention must be paid to the chin, as the contour of this
most important feature can be diminished or abnormally
enlarged by improper manipulation.
Illustration No. 5 shows the manipulation of the cheek
muscles. This is a sort of clawing movement. The mus-
(179)
(180)
THE COMPLEXION 181
cles must be accurately located and the motion light and
quick. Generally speaking, all facial massage movements
are outward and upward.
Hollow cheeks fill out in an amazing way when this
manipulation is properly and persistently given.
Most women begin to show age by a relaxed condition
of the muscles of the neck and throat, and no woman, I
am sure, has ever seen this first sign of advancing years
without a sinking of the heart. I do not hesitate to say
that by care the contour of the neck and throat can be
positively restored to the firmness and beauty of youth, in
all cases where there is not some wasting disease and
where the subject is not over sixty years of age.
Where the muscles are much relaxed, they are actually
sensitive to the touch, and they suffer punishment at the
first treatment if they are properly manipulated.
The masseuse employed by me says: "My patients fre-
quently declare at the first treatment: 'I can never stand
it,^ but before I have given them the third they will tell
me, * You have coaxed my throat into an insatiate demand
for the exercise you give it, just as my lungs demand
fresh air.'"
CHAPTER XX
THE COMPLEXION— Continued
II faut souflrir pour etre belle.
— French Proverb.
AM not going to tell you of anything new in the
"how-to-be-beautiful" line, but I am going to de-
scribe a process which, like everything else, appar-
ently originated with the Greeks thousands of years
before this continent was dreamed of.
"The dear Greeks and Romans," as Miss Blim-
ber used to say, with so much emotion, how much
we owe them — especially how much am I indebted to
these clever ones of antiquity. Every time I hear of some-
thing new, some very latest invention in the way of cos-
metic art, I feel certain that I shall find myself presently
mentally kotowing to a Greek contemporary of Hippoc-
rates. For that was about the time the cosmetic art and
the " how-to-be-beautiful " business flourished as it has
never done since. They used to deceive me, these moderns
(182)
(183)
(184)
THE COMPLEXION - l85
with their discoveries, but they do so no longer. For some
years of study — years of exploration and recognition of
the depths of my own ignorance — have made a Foxy
Quiller of me on this one subject.
Face Skinning
Now, face skinning, as it is practiced at this date, is a
process to take or leave alone, as you choose. Personally,
I leave it alone. But there are those who may wish to
embrace the opportunity to have their faces skinned, and
this is a free country.
Mark you, face skinning is vaunted as the means of
securing eternal youth. And youth ! What the woman
who realizes all its loss means to her will not suffer in
an attempt to get it, or an imitation of it back ! The
process is one of excruciating pain. I consider it attended
also with a certain amount of danger.
The patient who is to be skinned takes board for a
week or two or three with the professional skinner. Then
she pays for her board and torture in advance. She pays
from $300 to $500, which is honestly not too high. A
prohibitive price is, on occasions, a virtue. Next the skin-
nee takes a seat in a big operating chair, and the skinner,
after bathing her client's face in a solution, we will say,
of salicylic acid — other acids would be just as effective —
wets a sponge attached to an electrode, with the same
solution, which is in turn attached to an electric battery
and, turning the current on, passes this sponge over the
skinnee's countenance.
A.— 10
186 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
The application of an irritant powerful enough to pro-
duce an inflammation as that which follows this first
treatment savors rather of the inquisition of our late
friends, the Spaniards, but no one is obliged to under-
go it.
If it pay a woman to be skinned, let the merry art go
on, say I.
The first stage of the process concluded, the patient —
and here the term is no misnomer — finds herself with a
visage which resembles raw beef. The skinnee's face is
now decorated with surgeon's plaster, which is laid on in
strips up and down and crosswise, until the entire surface
is covered.
Days and nights of agony of a large and generous kind
are now liberally bestowed upon the subject who is wres-
tling so valiantly with Time. Anodynes are given to
make the pain endurable. For active suppuration must
ensue before the plasters can be removed, before the three
skins that are to come away can be literally eaten off,
and this part of the performance is no jest.
The suppuration of the whole face requires about a
week's time, and is truly wonderful and awe inspiring.
During this time the skinnee subsists on liquids taken
through a glass tube. She cannot speak or open her
mouth, which is perhaps a qualified blessing.
Talk about grit ! There never was anything approach-
ing the pluck of the lady skinnee.
When the suppuration ceases, the plaster begins to
loosen. It comes only in bits, bringing with it the de-
stroyed cuticle, which looks like an old parchment.
(187)
5WMTHEMN(i
vi^._l ^
(laa)
THE COMPLEXION 189
The "patient'' now shows a face just the color of a
newborn infant's — just as red, and without a line. Three
months later the redness has disappeared, and a skin of
delicate texture, white and transparent, is the result.
There is no question as to the improvement in appear-
ance, if one consider the face of a woman of sixty devoid
of every trace of a line of thought or experience an im-
provement upon the countenances that tell of self-sacrifice,
patience, and courage.
The woman past maturity without a line in her face
is, in my opinion, as stupid as a country without a history.
But there be those who do not share my views.
Hence, without malice or prejudice I say: —
Face skinning is not now a novelty. Your old friend
Galen knew all about it.
It has been revived successfully, and is a marketable
commodity. As the push-cart vender just beneath my
window shouted a moment ago : —
"You takes it or you leaves it according to what you
thinks."
'^^f^
CHAPTER XXI
THE COMPLEXION — Concluded
Went all afoot in summer's scalding heat.
— Henry VI.
MANY of my correspondents and friends spend
a goodly portion of the year by mountain,
stream, and sea that a special chapter may not
improperly be devoted to their toilet needs
during summer outings.
It is quite popularly supposed that the sum-
mer season is especially trying to the complexion, and
so, forthwith, the maids and madams at the summer re-
sorts go armed with cosmetics, veils, and sunshades to pro-
tect their carefully treasured faces from the glaring sun
and boisterous breezes.
As a rule, if one take a few simple precautions, such
as they take almost the whole year around, they need
have no fear of looking like frights when autumn
comes.
(190)
THE COMPLEXION 191
The Summer Girl
First of all, she must under no circumstances omit her
daily bath. This is the essential foundation upon which a
clear, healthy skin is built. The bath may be taken at
any time but just after eating. It may be cold or tepid,
as the individual prefers, but a warm bath, it must be re-
membered, is more cleansing. If one wish the cold bath,
however, it should be taken in the early morning and con-
sist of a gentle sponging with a vigorous after rab.
After a bicycle ride or any other out-door exercise
there is usually room for some work. Bathe the face
thoroughly with soap and warm water, rinsing well with
tepid water and then with cold. Dry with a soft towel
and make an application of some good face cream. Rub
the cream in gently, a very little at a time, with the fin-
ger tips, and be careful not to put on too much. A
superfluous amount of cream on the face may have a
tendency to produce an undesirable growth of down. Al-
low this to penetrate the pores of the skin, then wash the
face again with warm water, removing all of the cream.
For the girl who tans the following lotion is recom-
mended : —
Rose water 1 pint.
Pulverized borax ^ ounce.
Strained lemon juice .... 1 ounce.
Use this lotion freely after being exposed to the sun.
Sunburn requires a liberal dose of cold cream. A very
good cream is made from cucumbers, and can be easily
prepared at home : —
Put six ounces of sweet almond oil into the inside receptacle of
a custard boiler. Put as much water into the outside boiler as though
192 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
you were aboat to make a custard. Set the two (one inside of tlie
other) over the fire. Have ready four good-sized cucumbers. Wipe
them carefully so they are perfectly clean. Cut them into squares,
two or three inches in size. Do not remove the peel. When the
almond oil begins to warm, put the cucumbers in it. Set the custard
boiler on the back of the stove and let the water merely simmer for
four or five hours. Strain. To six ounces of the strained liquid add
one ounce of white wax, one of spermaceti, and two ounces of lanolin.
Heat until the wax, spermaceti, and lanolin have melted ; then take
off the fire and beat with an egg beater until cold, adding during
the beating process two teaspoonfuls of tincture of benzoin. This
will make a delicious cucumber cream if properly and carefully pre-
pared.
If the face show a tendency to become red, break out
in little pimples, and seem overheated, then the diet must
be attended to. During the hot weather one must be care-
ful not to eat too much meat and starchy foods. The food
required is only for repairs, and not for warmth. Vegeta-
bles, green salads, fruits, fish, and meat sparingly should
form the daily menu. Cold meats are better than hot, and
richly made, highly seasoned food must be abandoned.
During the soft early summer days the very best thing
for the complexion is plenty of fresh air. Sunny air will
never hurt the skin if it be properly protected by a tip-
tilted hat or sunshade, and a warm sunny rain is better
still. A tramp through the country during a warm shower,
bareheaded, will do much to repair the ravages caused by
late hours, close rooms, and the general fatigue of a fash-
ionable season. The far-famed English complexion is due
to the simple fact that England is a land of warm showers
and mists. The English girl never thinks of staying home
for rain — if she did she would spend the greater part of
her life indoors.
THE COMPLEXION 193
There, is no one infallible rule which will answer for
the preservation of every woman's skin.
The texture of the cuticle varies according to the oc-
cupation, the manner of life, and the climate, so that the
result may be in one case a thickening of the epidermis
and in another a relaxing of the tissues, and naturally the
same treatment will not do for both subjects.
There are also skins which have a tendency to dry on
exposure to the wind, others which become irritated, and
still others that grow oily and have that shiny look women
so detest.
Where one has been exposed to a strong, stiff wind
with the result that the skin is irritated and sore, a soap
paste is sometimes much better to use temporarily than
ever so bland a soap. This paste is of very common usage
in France, but cannot be purchased ready made, I believe,
in this country ; at least I have never seen it for sale
here. Any woman may make it at home after this for-
mula: —
Strained honey 50 grammes.
White soap, shaved in thin strips (either
of the floating soaps will do for this,
or a pure white castile) .... 40 grammes.
Tincture of benzoin 10 grammes.
White wax 30 grammes.
Storax 10 grammes.
Melt the soap, honey, and white wax and mix, then add the ben-
zoin and storax. Use instead of soap to wash the face before retiring.
A cold cream or a cucumber cream should be applied after the face
has been thoroughly dried.
Where the skin is dry and feels drawn, cream should
be used at night and a lotion applied during the day.
194 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
This lotion, which is called ''Beauty Cream," is made as
follows : —
Rose water 200 grammes.
Milk of sweet almonds . . 30 grammes.
Milk of bitter almonds . . 8 grammes.
Where the skin is oily, a milk vinegar used diluted
with a little water night and morning is efficacious.
MILK VINEGAR
Alcohol 30 grammes.
Tincture of benzoin ... 30 grammes.
Strong white wine vinegar . 30 grammes.
Mix and let stand for a week, and pass through filtering paper.
Another simple summer lotion is made thus: —
Rose water 100 grammes.
Borax 5 grammes.
Spirits of camphor .... 10 grammes.
Tincture of benzoin ... 5 grammes.
Use whenever required.
STRAWBERRIES AND SPINACH FOR THE COMPLEXION
Strawberries form a delicious basis for many excellent
cosmetics.
STRAWBERRY CREAM
Put six ounces of sweet almond oil into the inside receptacle of
a custard boiler. Put as much water into the outside boiler as though
you were about to make a custard. Set the two, one inside of the
other, over the fire. Have ready one full quart of large, ripe, hulled
strawberries. It is essential that the strawberries should be perfectly
ripe. When the almond oil begins to warm put the strawberries in.
Set the custard boiler on the back of the stove, cover the inside re-
ceptacle, and let the water in the outside kettle simmer for four or
fivQ hours. Tak^i the almond oil and the strawberries out. Let them
THE COMPLEXION 195
strain through a clean, fine, cheese-cloth bag. Do not hurry the strain-
ing process or attempt to squeeze the bag. To six ounces of the
strained liquid add one ounce of white wax, one ounce of spermaceti,
and two ounces of lanolin. Put all over the fire and heat until the
last three articles have melted. Then take off the fire and beat con-
stantly until cold, adding during the beating process two teaspoonfuls
of tincture of benzoin, ten drops of oil of lemon, and six of oil of
neroli.
This will make a delicious strawberry cream if prop-
erly and carefully prepared.
STRAWBERRY PASTE
To refresh the complexion and perfume the skin.
Fresh strawberries ^ pound.
Gum tragacanth ^ ounce.
Violet powder i ounce.
Dissolve the tragacanth with enough rose water to form a thin
mucilage. Crush the strawberries ; mix and stir them up with a suf-
ficient quantity of rose water to form a half liquid paste ; add the
tragacanth and the violet powder ; apply the paste to the face at
night and wash off next morning with tepid water. It is said that
this operation repeated for three successive nights will remove all
sunburn and tan.
STRAWBERRY WATER
Finest ripe strawberries, crushed . . 8 pounds.
Pure alcohol 2 quarts.
Digest and distill near to dryness in salt or steam bath. This is
both agreeable and most fragrant.
It has very high repute as a cosmetic and is used di-
luted with water for tan, sunburn, or as an agreeable ac-
cessory to the bath,
196
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
STRAWBERRY VINEGAR
Bruised ripe strawberries .... 1 pint.
White wine vinegar 1 pint.
Macerate twenty-four hours. Press and strain. Add eight ounces
of rose water. A delicious and stimulating lotion for the face, slightly
astringent.
There is scarcely anything which can compare with
spinach as a spring medicine and beautifier. The girl
who religiously eats it as a Lenten diet, will blossom forth
on Easter morning with a complexion that will rival the
lilies by its fairness. Spinach contains salts of potassium,
iron, and other things which conduce to long life and a
fair skin, and is worth many bottles of cure for "that
tired feeling.''
Ci1L«rf?T5'*
CHAPTER XXII
THE EYES AND EYEBROWS
Where is any author in the world
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye ?
— Love's Labor Lost.
.HE eye appears to be more immediately con-
nected with the soul than any other organ. A
woman reflects every emotion, almost every
thought from her two wonderful, priceless eyes,
and no feature of her face is more a telltale
of her nature. "Show me,'' says the old Chi-
nese proverb, "a man's eyes, and I will tell
you what he might have been. Show me his mouth, and
I will tell you what he has been." The same is true of
women. Up to thirty or thirty-five a woman may be
actress enough to make her eyes tell one tale, while her
life would reveal another; but little by little* the true
state of a woman's soul stands forth in the expression,
the frankness, the furtiveness, the candor, or the boldness
(197)
198 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
of her eyes. Healthy and well-formed eyes should be
neither too widely open, nor too closed. They should
be neither close together, nor yet too wide apart; they
should neither protrude nor be too deep set. The white
of the eye should be of a bluish cast. Notwithstanding a
lot of nonsense which has been written about the chang-
ing of the color of the eye, no such miracle has ever been
accomplished. We must go through our pilgrimage with
eyes the color it has pleased Nature to paint them. Pro-
tuberant and sunken eyes are not caused always by a
fault of conformity, but by too much or too little adipose
tissue around them. It is offcen possible, by eliminating
or creating fat, to correct their appearance. Proper diet
and massage will accomplish this feat in either case.
Dull eyes may be made lustrous by a proper attention
to hygiene. A beautiful eye is clear, full, brilliant, and
appropriate in color to the subject's complexion. Every
woman should take the utmost care of her eyes, bathing
them several times a day in pure water, and avoiding
every operation that will overtask them. The practice of
using any of the so-called eye beautifiers cannot be too
strongly condemned. Foolish women, who cannot realize
the danger they incur, sometimes resort to preparations of
belladonna or the vapor of diluted Prussic acid. The im-
mediate result is an unnatural brilliancy of the pupil, but
the practice long continued has frequently been known to
produce decay and total blindness.
When the eyes are reddened or swollen by excessive
weeping, or a long stretch of work, the subject should rest,
and apply a soothing lotion.
THE EYES AND EYEBROWS 199
In cases of granulated eyelids, I have had great success
with the following recipe: —
Yellow oxide of mercury ... 1 grain.
Rose water ointment .... ^ ounce.
Apply to eyelids morning and night.
WASH FOR INFLAMED EYES
Borax 2 grains.
Camphor water (not spirits of camphor) 2 ounces.
Drop a little of the solution into the eyes two or three times a
day and bathe the lids with the mixture.
AN EYE BRIGHTENER
The juice of a lemon squeezed into a tumbler of water and taken
occasionally, the last thing at night or first thing in the morning, has
a wonderful effect on the complexion and eyes. It clears the liver
and makes the eyes bright and sparkling. After taking the lemon
always clean the teeth, as the acid quickly promotes decay.
Clipping the eyelashes in youth will sometimes produce
a heavier growth, and an occasional application of a lotion
made by dissolving ten grains of sulphate of quinine in
two ounces of cologne will stimulate the growth. The
eyebrow-growth formula, which is given on another page,
may also be used with care for the eyelashes, and is usu-
ally efficacious.
Crossed eyes and squinting eyes are so easily curable
that there is no excuse for girls reaching womanhood so
afflicted.
TEA EYEWASH
Hot water poured on tea leaves, and the mixture allowed to steep
and cool, makes a soothing eyewash.
200 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
WITCH-HAZEL EYEWASH
Distilled witch-hazel 1 ounce.
Pure water . , 1 ounce.
To be used especially for eyes irritated by cold. Bathe the eyes
frequently with the wash.
BRANDY EYEWASH
Brandy 1 "drachm.
Water .1 ounce.
To be used especially for eyes irritated from cold. Apply fre-
quently.
ALUM EYEWASH
Alum 1 grain.
Pure water 1 ounce.
Drop gently, night and morning, into the eye with the tip of a
feather, a pipette, or some such thing, and this will sensibly relieve
inflammation.
ZINC EYEWASH
Sulphate of zinc 1 grain.
Rose water 1 ounce.
Drop the solution gently into the eyes, night and morning. For
inflamed eyes.
A good salve for inflamed eyes, as follows : —
Oleate of mercury salve ... 1 drachm.
Apply to the eyelids after bathing them gently, night and morn-
ing, with hot water.
THE Eyebrows
The eyebrow has not failed to secure fame in prose
and poetry, and the eyebrow immortalized by Shake-
speare's lover *' Sighing like a furnace with a woful bal-
lad made to his mistress' eyebrow" was doubtless long,
THE PERFECT EYE
(201)
OLD TYPE OF BEAUTY
(202)
THE E¥ES AND EYEBROWS 203
straight, archless, narrow, and delicately penciled, accepted
by the Greeks as the perfect feminine eyebrow.
There are various opinions on the subject, and it is
conceded that the Greek eyebrow is quite in accord with
the conception of mere physical beauty in women. Like
the rosebud mouth, it does not indicate the highest order
of intelligence, and the arch is expressive always of greater
sensibility and greater strength of character.
Scant growth of the eyebrows invariably denotes lack
of vitality, and external applications are useless to pro-
mote or produce a growth until the general health im-
proves ; on the contrary, heavy, thick eyebrows indicate a
strong constitution and great physical endurance. They
are not beautiful on a woman's face,' however much they
may signify either mental or bodily vigor, and when
they are not heavy, but droop and meet at the nose, they
are disagreeable, and are said to accompany an insincere
and prying nature. Fortunately, with a pair of small
tweezers these quite superfluous hairs may be removed,
and let us hope the traits they are supposed to indicate,
disappear with them.
Roma.ntic women usually have a very well-defined arch
in the center of the eyebrow, while a sense of humor is
indicated in the arch nearer the nose.
Long, drooping eyebrows, lying wide apart, indicate an
amiable disposition.
_ When the eyebrows are lighter in color than the hair,
the indications are lack of vitality and great sensitiveness.
Faintly-defined eyebrows placed high above the nose
are signs of indolence and weakness.
204 HARRIET HUBBARD AVER
The toilet of the eyebrow is simple. The hair of the
eyebrow can be trained to lie close and smooth to the
skin, thus resembling the penciled lines we read of so
often, by the aid of a tiny little brush manufactured for
the purpose, and for sale at all shops dealing in articles
for the toilet.
Where the eyebrows are too broad and inclined to be
bushy, they should be daily trained by brushing, and will,
in a short time, show an immense improvement.
When the hair falls out of the eyebrows, use the fol-
lowing ointment, which has never failed in my experience
to arrest the disease and cause a new growth : —
Red vaseline ....... 3 ounces.
Tincture cantharides 1 ounce.
Jamaica rum 1 ounce.
Oil rosemary 5 drops.
Mix all thoroughly ; apply twice daily with the eyebrow brush.
For continuous use where the eyebrows are healthy, a
little glycerine and rose water will give the delicate line
emphasis and brilliancy.
Very black eyebrows give the face an intense and
searching expression ; when natural they accompany a pas-
sionate temperament.
Very light eyebrows rarely are seen on strongly intel-
lectual faces, although the color of the eyebrow is not ac-
cepted singly as denoting lack of intelligence ; the form
gives the key to the faculties and their direction.
Red eyebrows denote great fervor and ambition; brown
a medium between the black and the red.
THE EYES AND EYEBROWS 205
A cosmetic successfully used for darkening the eye-
brows is the Fard Indien, either in pencil form, which is
the more convenient, or applied with a delicate brush
from the porcelain tablet.
Where the eyebrows are very light, almost white, they
may be dyed or stained so that the artifice is absolutely
impossible to detect, and the improvement will sometime
make the difference between a plain and a pretty woman.
This operation should not be done by an amateur. Any
skillful person accustomed to the management of hair dyes
can do it successfully.
Where the eyebrows meet at the nose, they give the
face a most sinister and suspicious expression. In such
cases the superfluous hairs should be removed by the aid
of small tweezers or by electrolysis. If the tweezers be
used, the operation must be renewed once in three or four
weeks.
A too heavy growth of eyebrows may be treated by
electricity. All the superfluous hairs can be removed by
this method, which is by far the best.
A.-ll
CHAPTER XXm
THE NOSE
In love, i' faith, to the very tip. of the nose. — Shakespeare.
vHE most perfectly modeled nose is a trial if it
has the habit of getting spotty or turning red
with or without apparent provocation. I do
not know of anything more vexatious to wom-
ankind than a red, blotchy, or shining nose.
Usually, although it is difficult to impress the
fact upon the afflicted woman, red or blotchy
noses are the result of some excess or carelessness, often
aggravated until there is a well-defined malady which
must be cured before the blush will fade or the eruption
disappear. Acidity of the stomach, indigestion, dyspepsia,
poor circulation, all mean more or less congestion, and
frequently, the blotchy or fiery nose is the outward sign
of an inward stomach derangement. Acidity of the stom-
ach is very disagreeable to bear and destructive in its
effects upon the complexion. In its early stages it may
(206)
THE NOSE 207
often be controlled by the following most simple of reme-
dies : —
Half teaspoonful of sulphate of soda. Dissolve in half tumbler
of boiling hot water. Drink as hot as you can one hour before break-
fast. Repeat the dose in thirty minutes.
Pure, hot water, drunk as hot as possible, several glasses
a day will often without any medicine at all cure this
form of indigestion, and the red nose will vanish with the
return of normal digestion. Tight lacing — tight clothing
of any kind — any stricture, in fact, will sometimes pro-
duce a red or blotchy nose and it seems superfluous to
advise the addition of an inch or two to the waist meas-
ure or looser shoes to the sufferer. Local irritation will
also cause inflamed nostrils, and of course the influenza,
rose fever, and that hideous epidemic called hay fever, have
their accompaniment of weeping, inflamed noses and eyes.
Change of climate, it is conceded, is the only escape from
this yearly martyrdom, but I have seen wonderful effects
produced in cases of chronic rose and hay fever by Mar-
chand's hydrozone and glycozone treatment as follows : —
. By means of an atomizer made of glass and rubber,
spray the nose and throat copiously and repeatedly, morn-
ing and evening with a mixture made of: —
One tablespoonful of hydrozone,
with 8 to 20 tablespoonfuls of lukewarm water,
according to the degree of inflammation of the nasal cavi-
ties. In case of extreme sensitiveness, use even still a
larger proportion of water.
Some patients may use a mixture made of one part of
hydrozone with four parts of water, while others could
208 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
not stand it any stronger than one part of hydrozone di-
luted with thirty parts of lukewarm water.
Always take great care that the remedy passes through
the post nasal cavities and reaches the throat, so as to
thoroughly cleanse the diseased surface.
In the absence of an atomizer, apply the remedy to
the nose by sniffing the liquid from the hand through the
nostrils repeatedly, and gargle the throat. It is always
beneficial to swallow the remedy.
Do not blow the nose too hard, as it might cause a
temporary bleeding, on account of the excessive tender-
ness of the mucous membrane.
It often happens that the patient feels during one hour
or so after each spraying, a temporary obstruction of
either one or the other of the nostrils.
This unpleasant feeling may be accompanied by fre-
quent sneezing, which is due to the tickling sensation pro-
duced in the nasal cavities by the presence of a great
quantity of the minute bubbles of ozone being set free
from the decompositions of the remedy coming in con-
tact with the infected surface.
In chronic cases, when the middle ear is affected, deaf-
ness may result from this disease, in which case ozonized
vapor inhalations should follow immediately the cleansing
of the nose and throat, and should be administered by
means of Marchand's Hand Atomizer and Ozonizer with a
mixture made as follows : —
Hydrozone . . ' . .1 tablespoonful.
Water 1 tablespoonful.
Pure glycerine ... 2 tablespoonfuls.
Shake well and renew every three days.
THE NOSE 209
When chronic catarrh of the nose is very tenacious
and painful, in addition to the above treatment, apply a
few drops of glycozone to the nostrils. Sniff it gently as
it will accelerate a cure and relieve the sensation of full-
ness in the nostrils. Glycozone relieves also the dryness
of the mucous membrane which often accompanies chronic
cases.
Sometimes intense itching of the nose is caused by an
internal trouble which, according to Dr. Augagnem, a well-
known French dermatologist, may frequently be cured by
the following: —
SYRUP FOR REDNESS AND ITCHING OF THE SKIN
Phenic acid (crystals) . . 5 grammes.
Pure glycerine enough to dissolve.
Syrup of orange peel . 400 grammes.
Dose for an adult, one teaspoonful twice daily.
This same prescription with the phenic acid dimin-
ished to three grammes is, according to Augagnem, excel-
lent for pruritus or eczema in children.
Let my readers who are troubled with poor circulation
and red noses try the following most successful and
agreeable treatment. It consists of what the French call
an aromatic bath, with massage after.
FOR AROMATIC BATH
Rosemary tops 1,000 grammes.
Boiling water 10 quarts.
Bicarbonate of soda . . . 250 grammes.
Make an infusion of the leaves and boiling water ; let stand half
an hour ; strain ; add the soda, and pour all into the warm water pre-
pared for the bath. This bath is a calmative. It should be taken
warm. r
210 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
A red nose is generally the sign of bad circulation or
impure blood. It is frequently accompanied also by cold
feet. In this case rubbing the feet for fifteen minutes be-
fore retiring will sometimes so stimulate the circulation
that the redness disappears from the nose with the im-
proved general condition of the subject. A very good
lotion for the inflamed condition which is usually the ac-
companiment of a red nose is made of rose water mixed
with 2 per cent, of its bulk of carbolic acid.
Shiny, oily noses may often be cured by bathing the
entire face daily with a weak solution of soda water.
Use common washing soda, — a bit about the size of a
filbert to say a quart of warm water. The circulation is
always at fault in these cases, and sensible women who
have troublesome noses are asked to take plenty of fresh
air and exercise and eschew all highly-spiced food. Use
your scrubbing brushes on refractory noses. It will make
them redder for a few days, but it will help in their cure
finally.
FOR AN OILY NOSE
Sulphate of zinc 4 grains.
Compound tincture of lavender . . 16 drops.
Distilled water 2 ounces.
Use as a lotion. In some cases where the skin is excessively oily
it is necessary to remove the oil from the cuticle. Where this is so,
it is well to wipe the skin with a soft rag impregnated with benzine
before using the lotion.
FOR A SHINY NOSE
The remedy here given is often very successful.
Take one drachm of boracic acid and mix it with four ounces of
rose water. Apply the lotion to your refractory nose as often as
necessary.
THE NOSE 211
I have received a letter from one of my correspondents,
to which it is pertinent to refer. She says : " I am a very
good-looking woman — or should be — but about fifteen
years ago, when I was a little girl of ten, I fell while
skating and broke my nose ; it was not properly set, and
it is now almost a deformity. I am assured it can be
made straight, but I would like you to tell me honestly
if you think it really can be made over into a nice
nose."
I certainly do, for I have seen the operation performed ;
but for all such operations you should carefully select an
expert surgeon. Consult your family physician who will
very likely tell you to let your nose alone — insist that it
is not well enough until it is as straight as it can be
made, and get him to tell you the name of the most skill-
ful surgeon within your reach. Crooked noses can un-
questionably be made straight, even after maturity ; and
in early childhood, owing to the soft nature of the carti-
lages that form the nostrils, the shape of the lower part
of the nose may be much improved by gentle daily pres-
sure. A beautiful nose is the greatest possible ornament
to the face of a woman and so rare that it excites the
admiration at once. Lavater, the physiognomist, declared
that there were thousands of beautiful eyes to one hand-
some nose. It is a somewhat singular fact that only about
three in every hundred noses are to be found where they
belong — in the middle of the face; the ninety-seven will
digress from the perpendicular line, whereas the bridge
should form a straight line drawn exactly between the
eyes. The Greek nose, which is the most beautiful, is so
212 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
rare that artists have frequently looked in vain for a
Greek-nosed model.
I was crossing the ocean some years ago, and could
not but remark the curious manner in which one of the
passengers appeared to follow a lady acquaintance who
sat near me at the table. The man was finally presented
to me as Mr. Blank, a distinguished foreign painter. About
forty seconds after he had been introduced to me, he said :
" Madame, could you present me to your friend ? I have
never seen such a nose on a woman's face. I would give
a year of my life for a model with such a nose. I have
not been able to take my eyes from Madame's face since
she came on board the ship." It was true, the lady did
have a beautiful Greek nose, and the stranger's peculiar
manner arose from the ardor of the artist who had never
before, he assured us, seen a perfect nose of Greek form.
I presented the painter to the lady, and during the re-
mainder of the voyage he amused us all by his evident
adoration of the perfect nose. We cannot all have Greek
noses, but the coming generation need none of them have
pug noses or turned-ups. Daily care in childhood, pressing
the pugnacious feature into shape, pulling it gently down,
will lengthen and straighten it. A pug nose is amusing
in a child or even piquant in a young girl, but a middle-
aged woman — an old woman with a pug or turned-up
nose is far from attractive. Do not let us have any more
of them. (See Chapter XLII.)
Red veins which are seen frequently on the nose may
be arrested by great abstemiousness and care not to ex-
pose the skin to sudden changes of temperature. I have
THE NOSE 213
never seen an actual cure of a well-defined case of telan-
giectasis, which is the technical name for red veins. Per-
sons suffering from this disfiguring blemish should never
touch alcohol in any form. To resort to the knife or to
electricity is not only very dangerous, but, as I have said,
so rarely successful ; I know of no authentic case.
To Stop Bleeding from the Nose
This may be caused by violence, or may arise from an
impoverished state of the blood. When it occurs in per-
sons of middle age it is more serious, as it is then often
a symptom of some other disease. The bleeding can gen-
erally be stopped by making the patient raise both his
arms above his head, and hold them there for some time.
Sponging, with cold or iced water, the forehead or face,
or applying a towel wet with cold water between the
shoulders, will in most cases succeed. The application of
a strong solution of alum or iron-alum to the inside of
the nostrils, or plugging the nostrils with lint or cotton
wool soaked in the solution, may be necessary if the
bleeding be profuse. The health of persons subject to
these attacks should be improved by nutritious diet, ani-
mal food, with potatoes, water cresses, and fruit. The fol-
lowing prescription may be relied upon : —
Tincture of steel 2 drachms.
Dilute muriatic acid .... 1 drachm.
Syrup of orange peel .... 1 ounce.
Infusion of calumba .... 7 ounces.
Mix. For a child, 1 tablespoonful in a wineglass of water before
meals; for an adult the dose may be increased.
214 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Placing a small roll of paper or muslin above the front
teeth, under the upper lip, and pressing hard on the same,
will arrest bleeding from the nose by checking the passage
of blood through the arteries leading to the nose.
Bleeding at the nose, when not caused by a blow or
other violence, will usually cease of itself in a short time
as it is frequently an effort of nature to relieve the con-
gested vessels. When it becomes persistent or is exces-
sive, the simplest and most effective means of arresting
it is to make a probe of a slender lead pencil or any-
thing of like form, and introduce by this means a small
bit of soft cotton previously dipped in a mild solution of
alum, creosote, strong black tea or even cold water.
Should this not succeed, a little of one of these liquids
may be snuffed up the nostrils or a small piece of ice
placed in the one from which the blood flows.
Dr. Negrier, a physician of Tangiers, discovered that in
ordinary cases of nosebleed, raising the arm of the af-
fected side will arrest the flow. It is well to try this
method before resorting to any other treatment. Women
of lymphatic temperament are subject sometimes to a
periodical swelling of the nose which makes its appear-
ance usually after eating or on coming into a warm room
from out-of-doors on a cold day. Nothing is more de-
structive to a woman's looks. Frequently the swelling is
accompanied by intense itching, and the nose will appear
to be in a highly inflamed condition. Without rhyme or
reason the inflammation will usually disappear as sud-
denly as it came. While it lasts it is annoying to an ex-
treme degree. The quickest and safest remedy for such
THE NOSE
215
an afl9.iction is a large dose of castor oil, and a warm
soda bath, or a lotion composed of rose water mixed with
two per cent, of its bulk of carbolic acid. To prevent a
recurrence of the swelling, the strictest attention to the
diet should be maintained. The patient should live on
fruits, vegetables, and saline drinks, taking an abundance
of out-of-door exercise.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE EAR
And here have I the daintiness of ea.r. — Henry IV.
HE perfect ear should be about twice as long as
broad, and should be attached to the head al-
most straight or slightly inclined backwards,
and should touch the head with the back of
its upper point. The critical observer will find
very few perfect ears. Mothers and nurses
are greatly to blame for the almost deformed
ear we constantly see in our young people. There is
nothing gives a lad so uncouth an appearance as wide,
projecting ears, and although a girl can dress her hair to
somewhat lessen the ugly deformity, as long as the ears
stand out from the head they are a great blemish. There
is no need to have recourse to a surgeon to effect a cure
in outstanding ears. A simple bandage worn at night,
which holds them flat to the head, is all that is neces-
sary. There is some sort of a patent skeleton cap, I
(216)
THE EAR 217
believe, which has the same purpose in view, and is more
comfortable to wear, particularly in warm weather. The
ear contains no bones and is for this reason easily
trained.
The reprehensible practice of piercing the ears is trace-
able to remote antiquity. I am opposed to it, not from
an aesthetic point of view alone, though I think any mu-
tilation of the flesh abominable ; but piercing the ears is
not always a simple and harmless operation. It has been
known, when clumsily performed, to develop erysipelas
and abscesses of a most painful ajid sometimes dangerous
character. Eczema of the ear is a common ailment and
a most disagreeable one. Indeed, all maladies of the ex-
ternal ear are peculiarly offensive. Women subject to
eczema should eat quantities of fruit, salads, particularly
dandelion and water cress, they should take frequent warm,
calmative baths, and above all, they should not get either
chilled or overheated. For a local application a weak
dilution of carbolic acid is healing and agreeable, or a
few drops of listerin diluted with water will allay the
fearful itching of eczema of the ear. The following oint-
ment is also excellent : —
CARBOLATED OINTMENT
Melt together 5 ounces pure lard, and 2^ ounces white wax ; add
^ ounce balsam of fir, and when it begins to cool, stir in ^ ounce
carbolic acid. The addition of balsam of fir to this preparation corrects
the disagreeable odor of the acid, and renders it slightly adhesive,
which is desirable.
The ear is liable to various disorders. Children almost
without exception, suffer from what is called " earache,"
218 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
caused by a cold, occasionally by a blow. For common
cases of earache, nothing is more effective than the appli-
cation of either one of the lotions which I here give.
LOTION NO. I, FOR EARACHE
Tincture of opium ..... 1 drachm.
Olive oil ..,...,. 1 drachm.
Tincture of opium is otherwise known as laudanum. The mixture
should be heated. Insert a smal] piece of raw cotton thoroughly
moistened with the lotion.
LOTION NO. 2
Sulphate atropine 8 grains.
Pure water 1 ounce.
Mix. Apply to the inside of the ear by the aid of a camel's-
hair pencil brush. The application may be made frequently.
'Where the earache is very severe a five to ten per
cent, solution of cocaine administered by the aid of the
cameFs-hair pencil brush, will temporarily at least, give
quick relief.
When the earache is continuous the subject should
consult a skillful aurist. Failure to do this not unfre-
quently has resulted in permanent deafness.
Occasionally earache is caused by the formation of a
hard mass of wax at the bottom of the outer passage.
This accumulation will also produce deafness. It is too
dangerous to attempt to dislodge this hardened cerumen,
one's self. The subject should immediately go to an ex-
perienced practitioner in diseases of the ear, for relief.
Children are sometimes subject to running from the
ears. In such cases they should be immediately taken for
examination to a good aurist.
THE EAR 219
Grown persons, as well as children, suffer agonies from
earache. Where it is possible, a physician should always
be called, as the pain which seems to be old-fashioned
earache may be the precursor of a more serious ailment.
Where one lives at a distance from a doctor, it is well to
have a remedy at hand. I have tried Duval's earache
cure frequently, and always with success. The Duval
formula is as follows: —
Laudanum and chloroform, 15 drops each. Mix. Wet a small bit
of cotton with the mixture, and introduce into the ear. The first effect
is a sensation of cold ; then there is a numbness followed by scarcely
perceptible pain and a refreshing sleep. It is of the greatest importance
that the external ear should be kept clean, and above all that the yellow
cerumen should never be allowed to remain in the passage until it has
hardened.
When the ear has been neglected until the cerumen is
hardened, it produces temporary deafness, which may be
removed by the following : —
Sassafras oil 10 drops.
Glycerine 1 fluid drachm.
Olive oil J ounce.
Mix thoroughly and drop a little into the ear every day until the
cerumen is softened so that it may be removed.
The ear should always be cleansed by the aid of a
small toilet utensil called an aurilave, — usually made of
bone or ivory, with a tiny sponge covering one end.
It is an extraordinary and most disagreeable fact which
I feel compelled to mention, that many women, otherwise
scrupulously clean, seem not to understand how to wash
and cleanse the ear of the accumulations of dust or ceru-
men. Nothing can be more shockingly disgusting than
220 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
the result of such neglect. Occasionally one sees a group
of blackheads in the shell of the ear. They are firmly
imbedded, and more difficult to remove than in the face.
They should be expelled by pressing either side of them
with the fingers which should be covered with a handker-
chief or bit of linen, to prevent the nails from cutting
the skin. After the blackheads have been removed, the
ear should be thoroughly washed with soap and water to
which may be added a bit" of washing soda or a little
carbolic acid in solution.
Living insects sometimes get into the ear, and cause
great alarm. Thej are instantly destroyed by pouring a
spoonful of warm olive oil, or camphorated oil, into the
ear, retaining it there until the next morning by means
of a piece of cotton wool, when it may be washed or
syringed out with a little mild soap and warm water.
mmn
CHAPTER XXV
THE MOUTH AND TEETH
Oh, how rife in show,
Thy lips those tempting cherries kissing grow.
— Midsummer Night's Bream.
PERFECT mouth is, according to sculptors and
painters, of medium size, the upper lip bow-
shaped, the under nearly straight. The lips
themselves, in nature of a bright crimson,
should be neither too thick, which gives
them a sensual expression, nor too thin, as
in the latter case the whole countenance as-
sumes an appearance of hardness and penuriousness. The
influence of the mouth and teeth on the personal beauty
of a woman is known and freely admitted by all, and if
a girl have a beautiful set of even, white, compact teeth,
she has the foundation of enough beauty for the average
woman. With the most irregular features, I have seen
women who were irresistible because they were possessed
A.--12
(221)
222 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
of an utterly enchanting mouth and teeth. Indeed, were
I to choose any one feature of the face as the keystone
for beauty building, I should say unhesitatingly, give me a
beautiful mouth and perfect teeth, and I will do the rest.
I can transform ugly skins into lilies and roses, make
coarse hair glossy and luxuriant, give the eyes a gentle
and womanly expression so that they will be sweetly at-
tractive even though jper se they are not beautiful, but I
am always rather discouraged by a noticeably malformed
mouth, and distinctly so when the lips of a woman part
to reveal decayed, misshapen teeth, pale, unwholesome
gums, and a diseased and fetid breath. However we live
fortunately in the age of wonderful dentistry, and even
the unfortunate woman with crooked, misshapen teeth
need not despair. Crooked teeth may be straightened, de-
cayed teeth cleaned and filled, discolored ones bleached,
and even hopelessly diseased ones may be treated and the
disorder arrested, and there are artificial teeth made to-day
which really do defy detection. It is positively essential
to every woman's beauty to keep her mouth healthy or
her breath will be offensive.
"Disease and health for a warm pair of lips
Like York and Lancaster, wage active strife.
One on his banner front the white rose keeps
And one the red ; and thus with woman's life,
Her lips are made a battlefield for those
Who struggle for the color of a rose."
Nothing so soon is fatal to the beauty of the mouth as
disease in any form. The fever which gives the eye its
unnatural and often fascinating brilliancy will also paint
THE MOUTH AND TEETH 223
the cheeks with a flush of exquisite rose, — its effect on
the lips is to dry them and make them parched and
brown and blistered looking, and the breath is tainted in-
stantly by disease. You will hear a physician or a nurse
exclaim: "She had a sore throat. I knew at once by her
breath it was diphtheritic" — or — '*He had a typhoid
breath" — or — "She certainly had consumption. I recog-
nized the phthisis breath." Whenever the breath is con-
taminated, you should look at once for the cause. In
children frequently it is due to some slight derangement
of the stomach, or it may be and usually is, the fore-
runner of a childish malady. But where it is chronic in
young or old, there is need of a skillful doctor at once.
The catarrhal breath is peculiarly offensive, yet I think it
can be almost always greatly palliated if not entirely dis-
infected. For immediate use the following is an antiseptic
wash, and will for a certain time correct an offensive
breath.
ANTISEPTIC TOOTH WASH FOR OFFENSIVE BREATH (Beaumez)
Phenic acid 1 sramme.
Boric acid
Thymol (in crystals)
Essence of mentha
Tincture of anise .
Distilled water .
25 grammes.
grammes 50
30 drops.
10 grammes.
3 pints.
Rinse the mouth with the above, which should be diluted for use
in the proportion of one-half tooth wash to same quantity of clear water.
Use after each meal and at any time required.
For a positive cure of catarrhal breath I know of
nothing so efficacious as Marchand's hydrozone and gly co-
zone treatment.
224 'HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
When the breath is continuously offensive, the follow-
ing pastilles are recommended, as they may be carri'ed in
the pocket and are very efficacious: —
Pulverized coffee 45 grammes.
Wood charcoal 16 grammes.
Pulverized sugar . . . . .15 grammes.
Vanilla extract 15 grammes.
Mucilage made from Senegal gum — enough to form paste of proper
consistency.
Mix the coffee, charcoal, and sugar thoroughly with
mortar and pestle, add the vanilla, then the mucilage,
which is made by dissolving the gum in water. Roll the
paste out thin and cut in little squares. Keep in tin or
pasteboard boxes.
All children of our day have a right, which advanced
dentistry in various branches gives them, to a set of reg-
ular, sound, white teeth. I will qualify this somewhat
by excepting the little unfortunates who come into this
world with the taint of scrofula (or consumption, which
is also scrofulous), in their veins. Even with these ter-
rible legacies much may be done to strengthen and assist
the bone in the formation of the teeth and the straight-
ening of crooked, overlapped ones. Many a girl has had
all her chances of ever becoming a pretty woman quite
ruined by a mouthful of crooked, overlapping uneven
teeth.
Frequently a girPs looks are destroyed by a narrow and
protruding upper jaw which a little care will transform
into a symmetrical feature. In these cases, it is well al-
ways to consult a good scientific surgeon dentist. Do not,
THE MOUTH AND TEETH 225
however, permit a sound tooth, no matter how it over-
laps, to be extracted on the advice of any one dentist ;
teeth are far too precious to run any risks about. In
every case, the teeth should be straightened as they come
in, for ivhile they are coming in the jaw will yield and
make place for them. After they are firmly set, even
though one resorts to extracting one or two where they
are crowded, to make room for the others, the result is a
space and the remaining teeth will only stay straight
while the torturing plate has them in a vice. I have
seen children suffer such agonies from those cruel plates
that I would never consent to the use of one again. I re-
member too vividly, one dear child's torture and my own
horror, when, upon examining the plate which was to
straighten her teeth, and had been by the dentist firmly
attached by all sorts of brutal contrivances so she could
not herself take it out, I found the proud flesh protrud-
ing from it in bits, some of them half an inch in length,
all around between the plate and her teeth. This child
suffered martyrdom through the brutality of a dentist,
and after all, the operation was a failure, resulting in
nervous prostration of the victim, the loss of two beauti-
ful sound teeth, and no result in straightening those
which were to be connected by the vacancies made in
extracting. The bill for this service was five hundred
and twenty-five dollars. Let one such experience be a
lesson to those who read of it.
It is now conceded that a great deal depends on the
care of the baby teeth. The period of dentition is of
course a very trying one, but it can be greatly ameliorated
226 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
by care and the greatest possible cleanliness. A teething
baby should have at least two full warm water baths each
day and the little mouth and gums should be washed fre-
quently with a weak solution of borax and cooling water.
The very moment the first little tooth appears, you should
buy the baby a tiny soft camel's-hair toothbrush, and
morning and night each little tooth should be cleansed.
Use the borax solution for this, and if agreeable to the
baby, add just a drop of essence of peppermint. Never
extract the first teeth to make way for the second Let
them drop out as they will, or at the most assist them
only to make their exit when they are hanging by a mere
thread. Children, and in fact grown people, rarely brush
their teeth properly. Teach the little people to brush
up and down, never across the tooth — in the latter the
enamel is rubbed across the grain and frequently is worn
off by too much brushing the wrong way. The best denti-
frice for children is camphorated chalk, which is readily
made at home. It is cleansing, antiseptic, and wholesome.
The following is an excellent formula for it: —
TOOTH POWDER NO. i
Precipitated chalk . . . . . *4 ounces.
Powdered orris root .... 8 ounces.
Powdered camphor , .... 1 ounce.
Reduce the camphor to a fine powder in a mortar, moistening it
with a very little alcohol. Add other ingredients. Mix thoroughly,
and sift through a fine bolting cloth.
THE MOUTH AND TEETH 227
TOOTH POWDER NO. 2
A good tooth powder may be prepared at a small cost
as follows : —
Take two ounces of prepared chalk, add to it one-half an ounce
of powdered orris root and a quarter of an ounce of carbonate of
soda. Mix and pass twice through a wire sieve and it is ready for
use.
One of the most offensively painful afflictions of the
mouth is too abundant salivation, which is frequently ac-
companied by a relaxed condition of the lips and a lack
of control of the muscles. There is nothing more disgust-
ing than the accumulation of saliva in the corners of the
mouth. The following is the famous ''ZeissP' formula for
the cure of what is called in English text-books, "a slob-
bering mouth."
FORMULA FOR TOO ABUNDANT SALIVATION — (Zeiss!)
Distilled water .... 250 grammes.
Cinnamon water . . . 50 grammes.
Syrup of cinnamon ... 20 grammes.
Tincture of iodine ... 4 grammes.
Dilute with water. Rinse the mouth well two or three times daily.
Children often acquire bad habits of making mouths —
of grimacing — and sometimes suck or bite the lips until
they so distort them as to produce a permanent deform-
ity and ruin the expression of the face. They should be
deterred from habits which are fatal to good looks.
Mouthy children are unpleasant, but they are curable.
(See also Chapter XLII.) It is astonishing, however, to
228 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
note certain persons, not children by an}^ means, who ap-
pear to be utterly unconscious of the appearance of their
countenances when they are chatting or laughing. They
engage in the most extraordinary muscular contortions
and distortions sometimes revealing whole sets of not too
attractive teeth and even half an inch of gum above
them and presenting an almost savage appearance. I
think it would be wise to insist where a young girl i3
getting into such a way, that she should be made to
watch her uncanny appearance by conversing before a
mirror. The vanity happily inherent in our sex and with-
out which we should, in my opinion, be but a sad lot of
" females " as Mr. Pickwick would say, may be depended
upon to effect a cure.
Massage is the only treatment for the drooping cor-
ners of the mouth. Make the movement upward and out-
ward ; downward facial movements work ruin.
It is something to live in the day of crown fillings.
Think of it, those who have gone through the martyrdom
of tooth extracting and the miseries of the old-fashioned
artificials. Yet, it is not so very long ago since teeth
were filled or stopped in good old London with " wooden
plugs." Think of the agony of that operation. I saw a
woman the other day who is conservative to the last de-
gree. She is rejoicing in most beautifully scientific den-
tistry including bridge-work, crowns, and all the latest
novelties and luxuries of the dental world. I could
scarcely believe my eyes. She looked as though she had
found the fountain of youth and taken a plunge in its
restoring waters. It is not astonishing that in old times
THE MOUTH AND TEETH
229
the removal of a front tooth was the punishment for
many crimes. To be minus a front tooth was a lasting
brand of degradation and convicted prisoners would beg
for the lash or for any other form of punishment.
Sometimes it happens that despite the greatest care
the gums soften and recede ; there is usually an inherited
cause. Taken in time the following wash is very eflBca-
cious in hardening the gums : —
WASH FOR RECEDING GUMS— (Delestre)
Catechu . . . . .' . aa 32 grammes.
Myrrh 32 grammes.
Balm of Peru ..... 4 grammes.
Extract of cochlearia . . .155 grammes.
Macerate for eight days ; filter ; use diluted with water to rinse
the mouth and gums as often as required.
The famous Eau Botot, a dentifrice of great renown, is
made as follows: —
EAU BOTOX
Green anise
Cinnamon
Cloves .
Pellitory .
Cochineal .
Cream of tartar
Benzoin (tincture)
Essence of peppermint
Alcohol a 80 ...
64 grammes.
16 grammes.
1 gramme.
4 grammes.
5 grammes.
5 grammes.
2 grammes.
4 grammes.
2000 grammes.
Mix the cream of tartar, benzoin, and cochineal together, then add
the other ingredients. Macerate for eight days. Filter and bottle for
us©.
230 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
For chapped lips the following is a good ointment: —
LIP SALVE
Spermaceti . . . . . . IJ ounces.
White wax 1 ounce.
Almond oil 4 ounces.
Alkanet root . . . . . .3 drachms.
Melt all in a water bath. Let it nearly cool and add : —
Balsam of Peru . . . . 4 drachms.
Oil of cloves 20 drops.
Essence of ambergris . . 3 drops.
A CURE FOR TOOTHACHE
Acetate of morphine grammes 05.
Essence of menthol 4 drops.
Phenic acid (pure) 20 drops.
Collodion Q. S. to make 4 grammes of the mixture.
Moisten a bit of cotton and apply to the cavity.
OINTMENT FOR COLD SORES AND FEVER BLISTERS
rrains.
Camphor 5
Powdered arrowroot . . . ^ drachm.
Subnitrate of bismuth. . . ^ drachm.
Ointment of rose water . . J ounce.
Apply whenever necessary to the lips.
MYRRH AND BORAX MOUTH WASH
Rub together in a mortar one-half ounce each of pulverized borax
and strained honey ; then add gradually one pint of pure alcohol and
one -half ounce each of gum myrrh and red saunders wood. Let the
whole stand in a large-mouthed glass bottle for two weeks. Shake the
bottle occasionally. Pass through a filtering paper and it is ready for
use.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE MOUTH AND TEETH — Continued
Bid them wash their faces
And keep their teeth clean.— Coriolanus.
BSOLUTELY cleaii teeth never decay. Crevices
or imperfections in the enamel at any
point, and crowded teeth where food finds
lodgment between, are the first to show evi-
dences of decay.
Food ferments in a few hours in these
minute pockets and bacteria multiply assisted
by conditions of warmth and moisture. Lactic acid is the
biproduct that these minute germs form and it soon dis-
solves out the lime salts from the enamel and dentine
under the enamel, thus leaving the hair like nerve fila-
ments exposed to heat, cold, and irritating substances as
sugar, acids, etc.
The advanced dentist of to-day polishes away these
rough surfaces and if the crevices be too deep to be
(231)
232 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
polished out of the enamel they should be filled before
decay has begun.
Preventive measures are employed first, to destroy germs
in minute crevices and cavities prepared for filling and
second, to harden the tooth structure beneath the enamel
(dentine) to prevent further decay.
This is accomplished by drying the teeth thoroughly
after applying thin sheets of rubber around the teeth to
protect the gum, and then saturating the cavity and all
crevices with formalin. This is a powerful germicide and
yet is harmless in that it may be applied to the tongue
without the slightest injury. It has the property of hard-
ening the tooth structure under the enamel. This quality
prevents decay positively. In proof of this it may be said
that a bullock's eye placed in a solution of formalin will
be so chemicalized by it that bacteria (germs) of any kind
will not multiply on its surface for weeks after its re-
moval from the solution, although the eye is of a gelat-
inous consistency and readily decomposes if not placed in
this solution.
Crowded Teeth
Irregularities of the teeth that cause decay may be
corrected in two ways. First, by the extraction of as
many teeth as may be necessary to bring about an even
condition, but a definite diagnosis of what any individual
case may require is only arrived at by the intelligent
diagnosis of a specialist in this branch of dentistry, in
consultation with the dentist in charge.
THE MOUTH AND TEETH 233
Second: A crowded condition may be overcome by
simply removing or polishing away between the teeth, re-
moving enough to allow the teeth to be made even and
healthy by drawing them in position by fine silk threads
or other appliances.
This applies particularly to adult teeth that may be
corrected more easily and in less time than in youth. It
is not generally known, but a fact that adult teeth may
be more easily corrected than children's teeth, for the
reason that the teeth are fully erupted and it is but nec-
essary to move them forward or backward to bring them
in alignment.
Stained and discolored teeth may be bleached to their
natural color by means of twenty-five per cent, pyrozone,
in the hands of an intelligent practitioner, who applies
the rubber dam to protect the gum. Dark teeth or yellow
teeth may be made a shade or two lighter by this appli-
cation, properly applied. Teeth stained with iron, causing
dark margins, can also be brought back to their natural
color. This preparation is absolutely harmless, as any
graduate of dentistry will tell you, and simply removes
the stain without in the slightest degree injuring the
enamel.
Misshapen, worn teeth, teeth too long, too short, or too
large can all be corrected by slightly changing the shapes
with very fine stones. In a degree the teeth may be
sculped, so to speak, into pleasing shapes and correct lines
without the slightest injury and with positive benefit.
Indeed, it is a hygienic measure that is being taken
advantage of by the advanced practitioners of this day
234 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
to prevent decay of the teeth. The enamel surfaces are
polished, and it is a proved fact, established beyond the
question of a doubt, that clean, smooth surfaces do not
lodge bacteria and, therefore, cannot and do not decay.
It is a mistaken idea that the enamel of the teeth is ex-
tremely thin. As a matter of fact, it is very thick, par-
ticularly at the point and sides, where the greatest strength
is required.
It forms a thimble, covering the dentine or bony por-
tion of the tooth from the cutting edge to the gum mar-
gin, and no injury can arise from removing a portion of
it, if that surface, be ground with fine stones and highly
polished afterwards. Absolutely clean teeth do not decay.
Porcelain Inlays
■%
Advanced practitioners of to-day avoid the display of
gold. Modern porcelains, lately developed in Germany, are
so perfect that enamel inlays may be set in almost any
cavity where it may be seen in talking or laughing, the
color and union so perfect that when moist it cannot be
traced. Gold filling, be it ever so perfect, is unsightly and
will not be countenanced in the front teeth by people of
refinement when they know that this may be replaced, in
the majority of cases, by carefully fitted enamel inlays.
Some cavities are so very small that this cannot be done,
and indeed, in small cavities it is not necessary ; but in
large cavities, where it is a pronounced disfigurement in
an otherwise handsome set of teeth, it is very desirable
that this change be made. I have seen corners of teeth
THE MOUTH AND TEETH 235
where large, unsightly gold fillings have been removed and
replaced with porcelain with two pins and fitted to the
tooth so perfectly that you simply could not find where
the two were joined. Besides, it was stronger, less painful,
and less tedious than the gold filling, and the nerve was
not destroyed as would be necessary in crowning.
Artificial Teeth
Perfect artificial teeth that defy detection should com-
bine natural color, lightness, strength, and correct lines.
Looking at a perfect denture from the front the first
six teeth should show slightly below the lip in ordinary
conversation and the side teeth should set close to the
gum in a straight line from the eye tooth back to the
molars. In this way the teeth at the side are partially hid-
den, and only the front teeth show. This entirely over-
comes that condition where an imperfect plate shows so
many teeth that it looks over full of teeth. Looking at a
perfect plate, side view, when in the mouth, the teeth
should follow the perfect lip, a cupid's bow or a double
curve on each side of the center. In other words the four
front teeth are a shade longer than the side and the molars
curve up in the back to meet the lower teeth.
The features are easily restored at the wing of the
nose and just below the corners of the mouth by raising
the porcelain gum at these points.
Natural effects are only produced by an artist in this
work. The six front teeth should be very slightly curved
from the corners of the mouth forward to meet in the
236
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
center and should restore the upper lip slightly more than
the lower.
Twenty-year teeth in forty-year mouths, youthful im-
mature types in color and shape should never be used for
mature people whose natural teeth, be they ever so per-
fect, will show worn places, slight abrasions, inequalities.
Here again it will require an adept to copy nature as
natural effects are not produced by manufacturers of arti-
ficial teeth. It is done by the skillful dentist alone.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE MOUTH AND TEETH — Concluded
Of such aspect
That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile.
— Merchant of Venice.
".HERE is practically no limit to the wonders per-
formed by the beauty culturist of to-day.
Long ago we discovered methods by which
wrinkles and furrows may be removed and a
parchment skin be made fair and smooth, but
a woman's teeth have been to the knowing
ones a telltale of her age which a restored
complexion only emphasized.
More depends upon a woman's teeth, in determining
good looks, than upon any other feature. The mouth that
parts to exhibit decayed or discolored teeth destroys the
claims of its possessor to beauty.
A missing tooth is equally fatal to a woman's looks.
Artificial teeth are best described as artificial.
A.-13 (237)
238 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Tooth Implantation
The most extraordinary feat in cosmetic dentistry is
the implantation of a live tooth to fill the vacancy in the
mouth of a subject desirous of artistically closing the gaps
made by the extraction of decayed teeth years ago.
This operation I myself was invited to witness, and
watched with amazement and delight, knowing what it
would mean to thousands of my readers if successful.
It occurred some months back, and because it has been
perfectly successful and also because of the marvelous
improvement in the looks of the lady herself, I have
with her kind permission secured photographs taken be-
fore and after the implantation, which are here repro-
duced to show just what tooth implantation is.
I may add that at this operation a celebrated dentist
from San Francisco and one from New Orleans were pres-
ent, each having come expressly from these remote cities
for the sole purpose of witnessing this feat in dentistry.
The patient is a lady in the forties. The teeth she
wished replaced had been extracted for over two years.
The dentist secured two natural teeth of the same
color — for there is a great difference in the shades of
teeth as well as in their form. These teeth were ob-
tained from a dentist who makes a specialty of extracting.
Despite the advances in dentistry and the protests of
dentists, there are each day in the year many sound teeth
extracted in New York city.
It is by no means uncommon for a man or woman
who has had to endure the pangs of toothache to de-
MRS. X. BEFORE IMPLANTATION OF TEETH
MRS. X. AFTER IMPLANTATION OF TEETH
(239)
THE PERFECT MOUTH (PROFILE)
(240)
THE PERFECT MOUTH (FRONT VIEW)
THE MOUTH AND TEETH 241
termine once for all to have no more of that sort of
anguish and to insist upon having every tooth extracted.
Frequently crowded teeth also are eased by extracting.
However the dentist secured them in this case, and had
the natural teeth, which were shown to us, and were
awaiting implantation in an antiseptic bath.
The operation proper of implantation is neither a long
nor a painful one. No ether or chloroform was used.
After opening the gum, under cocaine, a new socket is cut
into the bony process with bone drills and without pain,
except in a slight degree. A natural tooth or root is set
in the bony process, and around this root new bone forms.
The gum heals around the tooth, and when the operation
is properly done, under antiseptic precautions, it is a last-
ing, serviceable tooth, as strong as any in the mouth.
A small mature root is used, one that is firm and hard
in texture. The tooth is sterilized in solutions and when
placed in the socket is surrounded by bone. It is held in
place by fine silk threads, and becomes firm in from thirty
to forty days. The operation has been indifferently done
for many years, and many of the failures can be traced
to the insertion of too large roots that were not com-
pletely surrounded by bone.
There are so many details in the operation that can
only be explained by a specialist that I shall not go into
it minutely, further than to say that the operation applies
to single spaces where one or two teeth have been lost,
and where there are enough teeth remaining to ligate the
implanted teeth in position. There are three operations
of this description.
242 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Replantation of the natural teeth may be described as
an operation wherein a tooth extracted is replaced in the
same socket.
Transplantation is the insertion of a natural tooth from
some other person in a socket from which the root has
been recently extracted.
Implantation, the operation I assisted at, is new rela-
tively and was first performed about twelve years ago. It
matters not how long the tooth may have been out that
is planted, or how long the socket has been* closed. It is
opened by the surgeon and a full natural tooth placed in
its home. It is received kindly and heals quickly.
The pictures show the condition of the gum before
operating. The teeth had been extracted, leaving these
spaces for more than two years. The gum was opened
and natural hard teeth set in. In thirty days a com-
plete and firm attachment was formed, and now the pa-
tient enjoys the comfort of a perfect set of natural teeth.
She is unable to distinguish the implanted teeth by
any peculiar sensation, and declares they feel precisely
like all the others.
The dentist who performed this remarkable operation
tells me that front teeth that have dropped out may
sometimes be successfully replanted and that he has fre-
quently removed a loosened tooth, treated it, and replanted
it successfally.
CHAPTER XXVIII
ARMS, SHOULDERS, NECK AND BUST
In her bosom I'll unclasp my heart and take her hearing prisoner. — Shakespeare^
HAVE not much patience with the mothers of skinny,
leathery, and bony-armed daughters, and in this,
the triumphal hour of physical culture, we do not
see many all-bone arms. The fashionable woman
is in danger of the other extreme and of develop-
ing the lumpy arm, which may indicate an em-
bryonic Sandow for actual physical strength, but
which, from an aesthetic point of view, is what Carlyle
would call '^most unbeautiful."
I recently saw at an evening function "a new woman,"
to use the accepted phrase. She was a well-known so-
ciety girl about twenty-four; she ^'went in" as she ex-
pressed it, "for athletics, don't you know." She wore a
low, white silk gown, her face was freckled and weather-
beaten, with a distinct collar mark about the throat, above
which the skin was certainly four shades darker than
below it. Her arms were bare also, and the muscles were
(243)
244 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
SO developed that they appeared in lumpy protuberances
just as those of the professional athlete are wont to do.
I could not find the young lady in question attractive.
She had overdone it, as we Americans are apt to do. A
very well-known young man of fashion, in speaking of
this maiden, said : " She's an awfully good fellow, don't
you know; but one rather wishes she were not so dingy
looking about the face, and that throat really needs to go
to the place where you send your togs to get cleaned,
don't you see."
" Twixt two extremes the golden mean" is a good
motto for the enthusiast of either sex. Let us not abuse
the freedom which the evolution of the new woman has
accorded us. Personal beauty is impossible without good
health, to be sure, and health means the bountiful enjoy-
ment of fresh air and the rightful exercise of all our
muscles, but it does not mean the destruction of all the
delicacy and beauty of texture of a woman's skin, nor the
fostering of lumps of muscle for the round and enchant-
ing gentle curves of perfect feminine beauty. A beautiful
arm should be round, soft, smooth, white, and plump, not
fat. It should taper gently to the hand with an adorable
little curve at the small delicate wrist. Many young girls
have developed just such a beautiful arm from a very
meager, skinny beginning. I have made innumerable
pretty arms from very scant material. Here is the
method : —
First of all, exercise. Calisthenics is derived from two
Greek words, meaning '^ beautiful " and " strength " and cal-
isthenics we must have as our first step. Exercise, never
ARMS, SHOULDERS, NECK AND BUST 245
enough to over fatigue, walking in the open air, horse-
back riding, tennis, any of the ordinary methods of phys-
ical culture, with a care not to overdo. This will develop
the muscles, which are the plastic material of beauty.
With the fresh air, those of you who are too thin should
take the diet for increasing flesh, which was given in
Catherine Lane's treatment. (See Appendix A.) A month
of this regimen will work a marked improvement in the
contour of the arm, but the open air exercise should be a
part of your daily life at all times if you wish to keep
your beauty. Now for the texture of the skin. When it
is coarse and inclined to be rough and even pimply, scrub
the arms with a camel's-hair, large-sized bath brush, as
described in Chapter V. Every night when taking your
evening bath just before retiring, and after thoroughly
drying your arms apply the following lotion : —
LOTION, GIANNINI
Tincture of benzoin ... 1 fluid drachm
Tincture of tolu ... 20 drops.
Rose water 1 pint.
When the arms are unusually thin, it will be well to
try massage for them — not too violent — but gentle, deep
massage. Let the operator rub the Skin Food, for which
I have previously given formula (Chapter XXIIL) well
into the skin during the treatment.
In the course of a month, the rough skin sometimes
called goose flesh will have disappeared ; you naay then
use the following lotion to make the arms white and
pretty : —
246 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
LOTION FOR WHITENING THE ARMS
Pure glycerine 1 ounce.
Hydrochloric acid, specific grav. 1 16 . 1 Imp. fluid drachm.
Rose water 2 fluid ounces.
Bichloride of mercury (crystals) ... 6 grains.
Distilled water 4 ounces.
Alcohol 2 ounces.
Dissolve the bichloride of mercury in the alcohol, then add the
other ingredients. Keep in a tightly-stoppered bottle away from the
reach of children. This is a well-known pharmaceutical preparation,
highly indorsed, but is intended for external use only.
Girls with uncomely arms, disfigured by redness or
blotches, may improve their appearance very much by
the following lotion : —
Powdered borax ... 3 drachms.
Glyc
erine £ ounce.
Elder flower water . . 12 ounces.
This lotion is fragrant as well as eflBcacious.
Superfluous hair on the arms is to be deplored, but it
is certainly not such an affliction as on the face. Do not
be led into the belief that the scrubbing brush will in-
crease the growth of hair on either your face or arms.
The contrary effect is produced by the brush which rids
the pores of the skin of the greasy secretions which are
the life and luxuriance of the undesired hair.
Frequently, by the use of a good, pure soap and a brush
alone, the hair on the arms will disappear, and I know
of nothing except the regulation depilatory for taking off
the hair immediately. I should never recommend it ex-
cept in very extreme cases.
ARMS, SHOULDERS, NECK AND BUST 247
Once in a while one happens to meet a poor girl who
cannot bare her arms because of a growth of thick, black,
stiff, wiry hairs. No one can blame her for wanting it off
at once. All depilatories should be carefully used. The
following is effective for the arms and may be applied to
the skin. Operate upon a small space at each application: —
DELCROIX'S POUDRE SUBTILE
Orpiment 1 ounce.
Quicklime 10 ounces.
Starch 13 ounces.
Reduce each ingredient to a fine powder, mix and keep the mixture
in a closely-stoppered bottle. When you wish to use the depilatory,
take a little from the bottle and add a drop or two of warm water,
barely enough to make a paste. Now apply to the hairy skin. As
soon as the paste dries, or even sooner, if much smarting occur, wash
it off and the hair will come off at the same time. If the skin seem
inflamed, use a little cold cream or ointment to allay the burning.
The rough skin which appears on the upper forearm
can be made smooth by scrubbing and using a pumice as
well as ordinary pure toilet soap. This treatment may
cause a slight superficial irritation, but it will not last long,
and the following or any of the healing lotions heretofore
advised will allay the effect of the rather heroic treatment.
LOTION FOR SLIGHT SKIN IRRITATION
Pulverized borax 6 drachms.
Pure glycerine £ ounce.
Orange flower water ... 12 ounces.
Mix and bottle.
This is a delightful wash for any slight skin affections,
and may be used with most soothing effect for children
when sun or wind burned.
248 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Vaccination scars upon the arms are not beautifying,
but I cannot indorse the much-vaunted method of remov-
ing them by surgery. They are less unsightly than a scar
from an abscess or sore, because the association is quite
different. Of course it goes without saying that all little
girls nowadays are vaccinated upon the leg.
Nothing but exercise of the arm muscles will prevent
the arm of womankind from growing soft underneath near
the shoulder, and exercise alone will harden it once it has
become flaccid. The condition is one which betokens
years, but it can be defied. The first four of the dumb-bell
exercises and Indian clubs are excellent for developing the
relaxed muscles. (See Chapter XXXYI.) Use also the fol-
lowing astringent wash daily : —
ASTRINGENT LOTION
Pulverized alum 1^ drachms.
Distilled water 1 pint.
Glycerine .1 ounce.
Rose water 4 ounces.
Deep, brisk massage will ako aid in developing relaxed
muscles. The neck and throat are more beautiful in
woman from her early prime to her ripe maturity ; that
is to say, the girlish beauty of a youthful neck is not so
much in the lines, which are usually a little sharp, but in
the general air of innocence and sweetness, and also of
delicacy, which is ever associated with the slender white
column of the virginal throat and dainty shoulders. It is
the full-blown woman of thirty who is eblouissante when
the splendor of her neck and bust are revealed. It is a
mistake to consider either the elongated, crane-like neck
ARMS, SHOULDERS, NECK AND BUST 249
or the short, stocky throat which resembles the frustum
of a cone, as the model of beauty. The neck is properly
the column of the head and when quite symmetrical
should be a little wider at the base and at the top with
the gentlest of inward slopes toward the middle. It is a
curious fact that so many women learn to use their feet
and hands gracefully and expressively, and never seem to
consider that the neck is most eloquent in its gestures.
We are too many of us stiff-necked or wabbly-necked or
we crane our necks. Very, very few are the graceful-
necked women of our times.
Every woman dreads to see the muscles relaxing under
her chin, and the first signs of age are those that come
with the flabby throat which follows this condition of
the muscles.
Mme. Marchesi, the famous teacher of singing, is over
seventy years of age, and her throat is as white and firm
as that of a young girl.
The writers declare that they cannot tell how she has
preserved this beautiful throat.
There is really no secret about it. All great singers
have maintained the firmness and beauty of their throats
because of the exercises the muscles get from vocaliza-
tion. For this reason, women with thin, scrawny throats
and contracted chests, should take voice culture.
Mme. Lehmann, who acknowledges to her fiftieth birth-
day, is a living proof of the effects of exercising the vocal
cords.
Mme. Lehmann's throat is that of a woman of twenty-
five — beautiful, firm, white and symmetrical.
250 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
In London some years ago I heard an Englishman say
that he used to willingly pay his two guineas for a seat
at the opera where he could watch Lady Randolph
Churchill's graceful neck and head. I cannot teach you
from this distance how to hold your heads, but you have
the great artistes Sara Bernhardt, and Emma Eames
for models of the nineteenth century and the Greek
statues for the standard of antique beauty. It is an
undoubted truth that the neck and throat of a high-
bred woman are incomparably more beautiful than in the
woman of lower origin. Blood will tell ; there is no dis-
puting it.
The shoulders of perfect loveliness should be neither
wide nor meanly contracted, but of medium width and
should droop or flow into the arms in a graceful undulat-
ing curve. Square shoulders are not pretty, nor are they
womanly. Of late years, the metal trimmings about the
necks of our bodices have often resulted in dark, some-
times almost black stains around the throat. Soap and
water will have little or no effect upon such discolora-
tions, but I have not failed to remove them by a wash
composed of a weak dilution of hydrochloric acid — about
one fluid ounce of the acid to nineteen of the water.
The two circles or rings around the throat which fre-
quently mark the thirty-fifth year, particularly of a plump
beauty, may be lightened or sometimes removed by wear-
ing looser neck bands and by gentle but frequent manip-
ulations. The present choking style of neck arrangements
is ruinous to the beauty of the throat, which should have
unrestricted liberty.
ARMS, SHOULDERS, NECK AND BUST
251
During the season of sea bathing the neck and throat
are very likely to become brown or yellow through expo-
sure to the sun. They may be beautifully whitened by
the application of the following paste : —
Honey, one ounce; lemon juice, one teaspoonful ; oil of bitter al-
monds, six drops ; the whites of two eggs and enough fine oatmeal
to make a smooth paste.
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CHAPTER XXXI
THE CORSET
The glass of fashion and the mould of torm. — Hamlet.
^HE cultivated waist. That is what they call the
twenty-four inch waist in England when it is
compressed so that it may be girdled by an
eighteen-inch leather belt.
Cultivated forsooth! They may require coax-
ing in merry England, but we do not need
schooling in waist torture in this glad land.
We want it understood that we take to squeezing our
waists naturally. Ninety-nine girls out of one hundred,
pass through the self-infliction, waist-squeezing period be-
fore they have reached one and twenty — the age of re-
sponsibility.
Many of them continue to crowd and jam their in-
ternal organs beyond the years allotted to ignorance and
youth. Sometimes we have the pitiful spectacle of stout
(269)
270 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
old ladies girded into the tightest kind of quarters
around the belt.
Usually it is the very young thing and the married
belle who affect the wasplike dimensions that are so
unpleasant to contemplate, so excruciatingly painful to
endure.
The artistic standards of beauty require that the waist
should be twice the size of the throat. Therefore, if
one's throat measure twelve and one-half inches one's
waist ought to measure twenty-five.
The Venus de Medici, supposed to be a perfect tj^pe
of feminine beauty, is only five feet two inches high.
She has a waist of twenty-seven inches. The wasp waist
is not only unpleasant to look at, but it is account-
able for many of the ailments of women, which result
for life in impaired digestion, circulation, and respira-
tion.
No woman can have a good complexion where the
vital organs are packed away inside a corset four or five
inches too small for her.
The woman who laces herself into the shape of an
hour-glass presumably does so because she considers it
enhances her beauty. Goodness knows why she considers
it fascinating to resemble an insect of the wasp species,
but obviously she does.
I read somewhere that the tightly-laced woman always
imagines herself peculiarly sylphlike and graceful. Well,
why ? All we know about sylphs is obtained from read-
ing about them, and from gazing at their alleged por-
traits. I presume to say that I have seen all the noted
THE CORSET 271
pictures of the entire collection of sylphs. Certainly I
have gazed at ladies of a very early vintage who were
listed under the alluring guise of nymph, sylph, siren,
goddess or Venus, and warranted the genuine article. But
I cannot recall one — no, not even one sylph, not a single
Venus, nor even a second-rate goddess, with an eighteen-
inch belt measure.
So it is manifestly absurd to compare the cultivated
waist of our English cousins, which we have not copied,
but taken to without aid or instruction from our elders
across the sea, with the waist of poetry or canvas.
I think, however, that the men are to blame for the
revival of the wasp waist. For there is a revival in ac-
tive effect this moment. The new figure came into fash-
ion about a year ago. The corset that produced this
so-called new form of womanhood claimed to be so con-
structed that the wearer could reduce the size of the
waist from three to six inches.
Well, I am acquainted with men who should have
known better, and who rave about the new figure. One
male of my acquaintance told me recently that a certain
woman who immediately adopted the corset warranted to
compress your figure,' has a perfect figure, and then he
described it : —
'' Such an exquisite figure," he said. " She has a waist
you can span with your hands and magnificent shoulders,
broad enough for a man." Five minutes later he was
declaring that *' women nowadays were a broken-down
lot of nervous, hysterical creatures who should be forced
to go into hospitals and rest cures so as to relieve the
272 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
well members of society in general from the strain of
sympathizing with, and caring for them."
I was tempted to ask why this all-wise person did not
reflect a little on the law of cause and effect.
The truth is, that a slender, trim waist is pretty, and
that a squeezed waist is not. Now, there are ways of at-
taining a slender waist — healthful, wholesome ways. Such
a waist will, to use the slang of the period, be the real
thing, while the squeezed waist will always be a deformity.
Nothing sooner destroys a woman's freshness and the
flesh-and-blood beauty of womanhood, than diseased and
disordered nerves. There never was an agent conceived
so diabolical in its effects upon the nervous system, as
the corset that ingeniously deprives a woman of the
proper functioning of every vital organ of her body.
I am no advocate of so-called dress reform, which is
usually merely the fad of a man or woman who has be-
come a crank over some supposed discovery of rational
dress.
There has been a great deal of nonsense, written and
spoken, for and against the corset. This being a free
country, there is no reason why women who prefer to go
about without stays, whether from physical reasons or
moral convictions in the matter, should not be allowed
to follow their own sweet inclinations.
Personally, I consider a well-fitting, properly constructed
corset a blessing. I have experimented with substitutes,
claiming to be aesthetic, hygienic, and elevating morally,
and I have suffered, been made hideous to look upon, and
certainly have not been improved in temper as a result.
(273)
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THE CORSET 275
There are, of course, some slight, willowy women who
can do without the support of a corset. They are the
very, very rare exceptions.
Take for example Mrs. Leslie Carter as one of them.
Mrs. Carter wears a little girdle about her waist, which is
all she requires, her figure being naturally slender, and
the physical culture which she has received in her years
of hard training has given her extraordinary litheness and
poise.
But the average woman has neither Mrs. Carter's figure
nor has she had the benefit of long, persistent and har-
monious physical training.
This everyday woman requires a corset.
To show what corsets will do for a woman's figure, I
induced a lady not long ago who was, by the by, wearing
a most hideous corset herself, to have photographs taken
with the object in view of demonstrating the effect of the
corset as a factor in a woman's appearance.
When my friend had the photograph taken (which is
reproduced here and marked No. 1) she wore the corset
of her own selection. Every woman who sees this picture
will recognize the figure as one she knows very well.
No. 2 shows the same lady with a proper and well-
fitting corset. This corset, I may add, is not heavily
boned, but it is cut so that the ugly curve at the waist
is entirely suppressed, and the objectionable embonpoint,
caused by the wretched form of the old corset, has disap-
peared.
No. 3 is a photograph of another subject in a French
corset, which is intended to give a slimness to the figure.
276 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
I do not think this corset adapted for any but very slight
women, and I did not suggest it for my friend. The
length upon the hips would not be comfortable for a
woman of her size.
I believe in a simple corset — not the corset coffin. The
novel, boneless, ribbon corsets of Yvette Guilbert are all
that are necessary to support the busts of slender women,
young or old. Even stouter women look better in an
easy-fitting corset that does not press the adipose tissue
below or above its confines.
The great mistake American women make is in buying
corsets without trying them on and securing a proper fit.
No French woman ever thinks of purchasing a corset
from the counter. She tries her corset on, and she is
never satisfied until she secures a stay that is not only
comfortable, both for sitting and standing, but one that
gives her figure graceful lines, while it allows her to
breathe easily and to walk without the appearance of
being hampered in any way.
Be very certain, dear reader, that the hour-glass waist
— or to use the descriptive term of the fashionable Lon-
don modiste, the ^'cultivated waist," which is at present
in vogue (to a limited extent only, I am glad to say), will
mean disease and loss of beauty to the foolish women
who follow a fashion which makes a travesty of the hu-
man form. And recollect that unfortunately the harm
done by tight lacing is often entailed upon a succeeding
generation.
Women, not afflicted with obesity, who regard their
health are wearing corsets that are corsets in name only.
THE CORSET
271
In reality they are only satin or taffeta girdles, boned;
and laced in the back and over the hips. They come
in black and white, and all the new shades of pink and
yellow.
In one of these girdles a slim figure appears to ad-
vantage, but woe betide the buxom matron who attempts
them.
/ XJjLJ '^'4 ^CllBEE^T 9>
CHAPTER XXXII
THE HAND
Her hand
In -whose comparison all whites are ink,
— Troilus and Cressida.
•^HE artistic hand with its delicate, tapering fin-
gers is like the poet " born not made," and
every woman may not hope for this ideal
" second face " as the hand has been cleverly
called, but there are no hands pertaining to
womankind really barred from a greater or
less degree of beauty. Care and scrupulous
cleanliness are soon repaid in the toilet of the hands.
Even the housewife who must perforce on occasion do
rough, manual work, is included in this statement. It is
more or less true that it takes five generations to form
an absolutely partician hand, but I do not agree with
even so great a master as Balzac that ''persons of supe-
rior intellect always have beautifully formed hands."
" There is a beauty of the Sun and another beauty of the
(278)
THE HAND 279
Moon,'^ I have seen intellectual men and women who
had not beautiful hands, and empty-headed ladies and
gentlemen who had. To all my readers who may be so
fortunate as to have little children growing up about
them, I beg to say a word as to the importance of the
early and great care the little hands require. (See Chap-
ter XLII.) Children form habits most destructive to the
beauty of both hands and feet unless corrected. I have
never been able to understand why we do not teach our
children to be ambidextrous instead of early inculcating
in them the practice which renders the left hand, com-
pared to the right one, an almost useless member. Doubt-
less a few generations ahead of us will appreciate the
advantages of ambidextrousness, and it will then be the
occasional person who will excite comment by being
" right-handed."
From birth, the tiny fingers should receive careful
attention and the little nails should be cut in an oval
form which will aid developing tapering points. It is
ruinous to permit children to bite the nails ; the best
remedy is to rub a little extract of quassia on the finger
tips each time the hands are washed. The bitter taste
is very unpleasant, but harmless, and the habit is soon
broken, if the treatment be persistent. Many grown
women, as well as children, are really afflicted with rough
hands. Often this condition is produced from carelessness;
sometimes however, the skin is extremely susceptible. In
washing the hands, use a pure soap containing no free
alkali^ and always rinse all the soap carefully and thor-
oughly away. If soap be irritating, as it sometimes is, no
A.— 15
280 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
matter how delicate or pure, try the following paste
called by the French "Amandine." It will be found deli-
cious and very healing.
AMANDINE
Put in a large marble mortar two ounces of gum arable, and six
ounces of white honey; triturate, and when the mixture has been rubbed
into a thick paste, add three ounces of perfectly neutral almond shav-
ing cream. Then continue the trituration until the mixture has be-
come homogeneous. Two pounds of fresh, cold, pressed, sweet almond
oil are next allowed to flow from a can above it into the mass; other-
wise, if it enter in too large quantities, the blending is imperfect,
and the amandine becomes oily instead of jelly-like and transparent,
as it should be when the manipulation has been skillful. The per-
fume consists of one -half drachm of attar of bitter almonds to every
pound of paste. A little attar of roses may also be added. As soon
as finished, it must be put into earthen jars and closely sealed.
This is a delightful compound, but it is a little difficult
to make without laboratory appliances. Unless you wish
it for continuous use, it will be better to purchase it. Take
care not to buy the dark-colored so-called "Amandine." It
should be a pure, creamy-white paste.
Almond meal has been in use for the toilet by French
women for years. It came into vogue about a decade
since in America, and is easily made at home. Proceed as
follows : —
ALMOND MEAL
Almond powder 1 pound.
Cuttlefish bone (powdered ) 5 ounces.
Curd soap (air-dried, powdered) ... 2^ ounces.
White castile soap, (air-dried, powdered) 2^ ounces.
Orris root (in fine powder) 1^ ounces.
Mix and pass the whole through a fine sieve.
THE HAND 281
Another excellent compound for whitening and soften-
ing the hands is called '' Honey Paste." This requires no
skill to make, and is delicate and efficacious : —
HONEY PASTE
Rub together one pound honej and the yolks of eight eggs; then
gradually add sweet almond oil, 1 pound, during constant trituration,
and work in bitter almonds, blanched and ground to meal, 8 ounces;
finally perfume with attars of bergamot and cloves, each 2 drachms.
Chapped hands are common to persons with poorly cir-
culating blood, or to women who are obliged to frequently
immerse their hands in either cold or hot water. Many
suffer intensely from chapped hands during the summer
months as well as in cold weather. In such cases, do not
expose the hands to sharp winds nor to out-of-door cold
without gloves. I do not approve of wearing gloves in-
doors unless the hands are so badly chapped as to almost
bleed; then anoint them with cold cream and cover them
with gloves three sizes too large. It is a serious mistake
to wear tight gloves on any occasion, but for chapped or
rough hands, the gloves should be as loose as possible.
Anything that impedes the circulation of the blood in the
slightest is detrimental to the texture of the skin. It is
not always agreeable to use cold cream. The lotion here
given is a good substitute : —
LOTION FOR CHAPPED OR ROUGH HANDS (VIGIER)
Rose water 100 grammes.
Glycerine 20 grammes.
Tannin 50 centigrammes.
Mix thoroughly. Moisten the hands with a few drops when re-
quired. This formula is also excellent for chapped lips.
282 . HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Occasionally some disturbance of the blood will pro-
duce an intense itching of the hands. It may be at once
allayed by the following wash highly recommended by
Monin: —
WASH FOR ITCHING OF THE HANDS
Milk of almonds .... 500 grammes.
Hydrate of chloral .... 4 grammes.
Tincture of poppies ... 5 grammes.
Apply a few drops to the parts affected.
Twenty-five years ago, there were I think, but two pro-
fessional manicures in this country, though in Europe the
luxurious classes commonly employed them, and the Pari-
sienne has always devoted much time and care to the
beauty of her finger tips. About ten years ago, I took a
course of manicure lessons in Paris from the niece of the
original manicure, Sitts. This lady is now upward of
seventy years of age, for she has been an ''artiste of the
hand," to use her own words, for nearly half a century.
Even in those days she was not over youthful, but she
was coquettish to the last degree, and used to quite over-
power me during my lessons, not only by her toilettes,
which were extremely girlish, but by her easy and airy
style of conversation. For example, she would always
speak of H. R. H., the Prince of Wales, as " Ce cJier Pritice^^
— when I treat his nails I say to myself — "here at least is
a hand worthy of a Sitts" — or "Madame must pardon me
if I cannot give her a seance to-morrow. His Grace the
Due of- attends a garden party at three. I shall be
blamed indeed if his hands are not a credit to the house
of Sitts." I used to return from my lesson feeling that I
THE HAND 283
had almost associated with royalty. In spite, however, of
this element of the ridiculous, and also of the dear old
lady's extreme snobbishness, I learned a great deal from
her of the care of the finger nails, and I unlearned the
greater part of the art of manicuring which I had acquired
in America, and which in many may be better termed the
art of ruining the finger nails and fingers.
Manicuring was originated and developed by Monsieur
Sitts, my old lady's uncle, who was King Louis Phillipe's
pedicure. In taking care of the , royal feet, M. Sitts
showed such skill that his Majesty one day asked him to
remove an agnail from one of his fingers. Sitts performed
this operation so cleverly that the royal client thereafter
employed him, and the title "Manicure" was added to
''Pedicure." Manicure means, as doubtless all my readers
know, care of the hands ; pedicure, care of the feet. The
Sitts method does away with cuticle knife and mineral
acids for whitening the nails. It also substitutes an
orange-wood stick sharpened for cleaning the nails instead
of curved scissors, and a bit of chamois skin does duty for
polishing, and is substituted for the buffer used in this
country. The manicure set of the most fashionable and
fastidious French woman therefore consists of : —
2 clippers, one for cutting the nails of each hand.
1 small parcel of orange-wood sticks.
1 square of chamois skin.
1 box of rose-colored ointment.
1 box of nail powder.
1 velvet file.
This reduces the cost of manicure implements very
much, and the most beautiful results are certainly obtained
284 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
by the Sitts method. It is the common and pernicious
practice in America to cut the selvage skin which borders
the nail inside, and which is intended to protect it. The
Sitts method totally condemns the use of steel either
under the nail or around the lisiere (selvage). Mme. Sitts
very logically says the smoothest of so-called nail cleaners
made in steel is sharp enough to roughen the delicate
under-surface. It then attracts the dust and foreign mat-
ter because of this roughness, and more cleaning only
makes it worse. Then acid is resorted to, and the texture
of the nails is ruined. A properly pointed stick of orange
wood, such as the dentists use for cleaning the teeth, is
the only nail cleaner necessary. It removes dust and un-
cleanliness, and does not scratch nor injure the enamel of
the nail which is just as delicate as that of the teeth.
Mme. Sitts also declares emphatically that the border or
selvage around the nail is intended to protect it, and that
in cutting it you make it ragged just as you would if you
jagged the selvage of a bit of cloth. And, she adds, it
would be just as sensible to cut the border of your eye-
lids or your ears with the idea of making them even and
smooth as the nails. Besides, the very touch of a steel
instrument on the enamel surface is bound to scratch the
nail and cause blemishes. I recollect with great clearness
the way manicures have clipped and scraped and hacked
my fingers in other days — often until they bled. Let this
counsel, which comes from the fountain head of manicure
art, be a word to the wise.
The nails require the nail brush and soap at least once
daily, and after washing the hands, while they are still
SHAPE THE NAILS WITH A VELVET FILE
USE CLIPPERS INSTEAD OF CURVED SCISSORS
(285)
SHOWING USE OF THE ORANGE-WOOD STICK IN MANICURING
(286)
POLISHING WITH THE BUFFER
THE HAND 287
soft from the action of the water, it is well to gently
press the cuticle around the nail back toward the finger
base. If this be done with care daily, the nail will assume
a graceful, oval form, ending in the white crescent which
is considered such a mark of beauty.
This is one of the small personal duties which must
be attended to religiously, for if neglected only a day or
two, the skin will attach itself to the nail, and then it is
apt to crack or break, leaving the edge as sore and un-
sightly as though a fashionable manicure had ''treated"
it, and treated it very badly, with sharp instruments. Use
a little vinegar or lemon juice in place of other acids for
removing discolorations. (See Chapter XXXI.)
Excessive moistness or perspiration of the hands with-
out apparent cause, is usually indicative of nervous debil-
ity or some internal derangement. The following is a
good local remedy : —
REMEDY FOR PROFUSE PERSPIRATION OF THE HANDS
(Edgerly)
Cologne . 90 grammes.
Tincture of belladonna ... 15 grammes.
Mix thoroughly ; moisten the hands two or three times daily with
the mixture.
Chilblains are a most painful affliction. They are
caused either by a scrofulous condition of the blood, or
by sudden change of temperature from excessive cold to
extreme heat. When they have once formed they are
very difficult to be rid of. Many persons afflicted with
chilblains suffer from them only in the winter time, but
weak and aged subjects are frequently troubled in sum-
mer also. The best treatment for chilblains is with local
288 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
stimulants and counterirritants, among which the best are
painting the parts twice a day with iodine, or bathing
the chilblains with diluted hydrochloric acid just strong
enough to slightly prick the skin. When the inflamed
parts ulcerate, an excellent dressing is made of cold cream
(formula already given) to which a few grains of tannic
acid have been added.
Glycerine jelly is an excellent preventive of chilblains
where the hands are very sensitive. It is made thus: —
GLYCERINE JELLY
Pure glycerine 4 ounces.
Enough gum tragacanth to thicken.
Attar of roses 8 drops.
Dissolve the gum in enough water to make a thick liquid. Stir
into the glycerine.
Strawberry cream is a delicate emollient for tender hands.
Indigestion will make the hands red. If you take good
care of them and have no trouble with the digestive or-
gans, you will find wearing gloves two or three sizes too
large for you, spread with a paste made as follows, will
make the hands white again : —
Oil of sweet almonds 2 teaspoonfuls.
Glycerine 1 teaspoonful.
Rice flower . 1 teaspoonful.
Rose water 1 ounce.
Tincture of benzoin .30 drops.
Yolks of two fresh eggs.
Pour the oil of sweet almonds .over the rice flower and stir;
then add the yolks of eggs and glycerine; last of all, the rose
water and benzoin. Rip the gloves open and spread the inside
with this paste; then sew them up again. Wash your hands thor-
oughly at night before putting on the gloves, which you should wear
until morning,
mm
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE HAND — Concluded
I take thy hand, this hand,
As soft as dove's down, and as white as it.
— Winter's Tale.
T IS not difficult to have soft, pretty hands.
The great point is to keep them scrupulously
clean and to pay attention to the nails, which re-
^^ quire daily care, although they rarely receive it
is^^ except by women of extreme leisure.
When the hands are rough a skin-feeding oint-
ment is required. One of the best for this purpose
IS camphor cream, made as follows : —
Spermaceti 2 ounces.
White wax 2 ounces.
Sweet almond oil 2 ounces.
Melt the three ingredients together over a gentle fire and add one
ounce of gum camphor in shavings. Take off fire when camphor is dis-
solved. Stir until the mass concretes. Put into jars. Use at night
freely, anointing the hands, which should first be thoroughly scrubbed
>vith warm water and a pure soap.
(289)
290 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
The old-fashioned almond paste which our grandmoth-
ers used for their dainty hands is excellent. Here is the
formula : —
White wax 1 ounce.
Oil of sweet almonds ... 2 ounces.
Attar of roses few drops.
Melt the oil and wax together, add the perfume while the mixture
is cooling, beating it meanwhile.
Honey and almond paste, to be worn at night under
gloves much too large, is a remedy for red hands famous a
century ago. It is easily made, but should not be com-
pounded in large quantities, as the eggs do not keep.
HONEY AND ALMOND PASTE
Almond meal 4 ounces.
Oil of sweet almonds .... 8 ounces.
Pure honey (strained) .... 8 ounces.
Yolk of egg ^ ounce.
Melt the honey separately, pour the almond meal into it and knead
it together with the beaten yolk of egg. Add the oil and knead again
until a paste is produced.
This is a wonderful remedy for harsh hands.
Horse-chestnut meal paste is a favorite remedy for
rough hands in Continental Europe.
It is prepared like the almond paste, substituting horse-
chestnut meal for almond meal.
A good lotion for whitening the hands is made as fol-
lows : —
Pulverized borax 3 drachms.
Glycerine £ ounce.
Elder flower water .... 12 ounces.
Mix and apply several times a day if necessary.
THE HAND 291
When the hands appear to be constitutionally rough it
is a good plan to wash them always in bran or oatmeal
water. This water is made very easily.
Take some fresh bran or good sweet oatmeal and boil it in water
enough to make it a very thin gruel. Strain and use the liquid, a little
more diluted, instead of fresh water whenever the hands are washed.
These washes must be made fresh every second or third
day, as they quickly turn sour.
Use a portion of fresh cut lemon to remove stains from
the nails or fingers.
' A bit of pumice soap will take away callous spots.
Cocoa cream cerate, which is sold at some shops at a
very high price, is made thus: —
Take of cocoa butter, oil of sweet almonds, and white wax, equal
parts ; melt them together and stir until cool.
TO WHITEN THE HANDS
Lanolin 100 grammes.
Paraffin (liquid) .... 25 grammes.
Extract of vanilla. ... 10 drops.
Oil of roses 1 drop.
Mix and apply when necessary.
It is well to recollect that stricture in any part of the
body will frequently produce red hands.
For example, tightly-laced corsets, a bodice too tight
in the armholes, sleeves that bind either above or below
the elbow.
Even tight garters or tight shoes may produce red
hands.
292 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
In all but very exceptional cases, say one out of per-
haps ten thousand, a woman's hands are easily kept white
and pretty.
To keep them white, frequent and thorough washing
is necessary, using a scrubbing brush and a good soap,
taking care to rinse the soap well out of the skin before
drying the hands.
To keep them soft almost any one of the formulas
given above will suffice if used intelligently and persist-
ently.
How TO BE Your Own Manicure
To take perfect care of the hands one requires a very
few simple implements and five minutes' time six days in
the week. A nail clipper should be used in the place of
the curved scissors. The clippers never create agnails,
commonly called hangnails.
Never use a sharp instrument under the nails. An
orange-wood stick carefully whittled to a smooth flat point
should be used instead of a metal nail cleaner.
Abjure the cuticle knife. It simply bruises and hacks
the selvage around the nail, which should never be cut.
Use a velvet file instead of one of the rougher kind.
All liquid bleaches for whitening the nails are merely
a diluted mineral acid of some powerful nature. They in-
evitably thicken the nail, and render it opaque instead of
transparent.
Keep a bit of pumice stone on hand for removing
roughness and ink spots.
THE HAND 293
After washing the hands, press the skin or selvage
around the nail gently away from it, particularly at the
base, so that the moon will show.
The moons are really indications of physical strength,
and are never seen on the fingers of the sick.
The little white flecks on the nails indicate disturbed
circulation or injury from the cuticle knife; no external
application will cure them.
Once a week is often enough for manicuring, which one
may easily do for one's self. Operate upon one hand at a
time as follows : —
Cover the tips of the fingers with amandine; soak the
hand for at least fifteen minutes in a bowl of warm
water into which a little soap in powder has been cast.
Dry the fingers carefully, pressing the selvage down all
around. Use the clippers to cut with. A little prac-
tice and you will secure a perfect pointed oval in
form, and each nail will be the same length and con-
tour.
Remove all foreign matter from under the nail with
an orange-wood stick. If there be stains or discolorations,
take them off with the inside of a lemon. Apply a very
little rose paste to the surface of the nail ; next dust them
rather thickly with the nail powder, and polish with a bit
of chamois skin or a nail buffer. Rub always across, never
up and down.
Rough, hard work will, of course, injure the appearance
of the hands unless they are cared for. Almond meal is
all that is necessary, in addition to the above advice, to
keep them §oft^ white and pretty.
294 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Where there is undue moisture of the palms try the
following lotion : —
Cologne water 70 grammes.
Tincture of belladonna . . 15 grammes.
Amandine may be made at home, but it is very diflS-
cult to prepare. It is cheaper in the end to purchase it
at one of the department shops.
Make nail powder as follows : —
Silicon 8 ounces.
Oxide of zinc 2 ounces.
Pulverized pumice .... ^ ounce.
Lake (00) enough to color pale rose.
Mix in mortar and sift through fine sieve.
A fine rose paste for the nails is made thus: —
Spermaceti 1^ ounces.
White wax 9 drachms.
Oil of almonds 12 ounces.
Alkanet root 2 ounces.
Attar of roses 1 drachm.
Melt the first four ingredients in a hot water bath. Strain, beat
until nearly cold, then add attar of roses.
Hints on the Hands
Hands show the ravages of time more than any other
part of the body. Between the ages of seventeen and
eighteen they attain the maturity and beauty of symnietry,
and if subjected to the most careful treatment will remain
practically unchanged until thirty. At thirty an almost im-
perceptible change begins and without constant attention
their beauty wanes. The skin begins to wrinkle and grows
THE HAND 295
dry, and the joints lose their shape. The shrinking of the
flesh displays the faults which the plumpness of youth had
covered up.
Neglect will hasten the aging of the hands, and care
will work wonders. It behooves every woman to take
special pains with them, as her hands are no small part
of her personality.
Young women with red hands seldom realize that the
difficulty usually is caused by tight lacing. Wearing the
corsets too tight has a tendency to interfere with the
circulation, and red hands are the result.
Great care should be taken of the nails. A lady can
always be told by the condition of the tips of her fingers.
The nails must never be bitten, the cuticle must not be
ragged and the rims must be white, not black. A very
little effort will keep the nails in good order.
If the hands be rough rub them with a little cold
cream before retiring.
Don't wear tight gloves. They spoil the shape of the
hands, and give them a puffy, unpleasant appearance.
Women are very careless about drying their hands.
They give them a splash and a promise and then wonder
why they are rough. The hands should be very carefully
dried — and a few drops of a good hand lotion rubbed in.
They should not be exposed to the outside air for some
time after they are washed. There is no better lotion
than the following for everyday use : —
Rose water 8 ounces.
Pulverized borax . . . . . 1 ounce.
Glycerine 1 ounce.
Tincture benzoin 1 drachm.
296 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
When the hands that come in contact with dirt and
grease in the rough work of the household get what is
called grimed, the average soap will have very little effect
upon them. Before attempting to get these hands clean,
it is better to thoroughly rub a good spoonful of vaseline
into them ; then wash in warm water, using a pure soap
and fairly stiff hand scrubbing brush. Rinse and dry care-
fully. If this is not successful, repeat the process.
A good hand whitener is made as follows: —
Sweet and bitter almonds, blanched
and pounded into a paste .... 250 grammes each.
Lemon juice 60 grammes.
Sweet milk 30 grammes.
Sweet almond oil 90 grammes.
Brandy 180 grammes.
TO REMOVE WARTS
The best way to have warts removed is by electricity.
You can have them removed also by the use of an acid,
or by using this mixture: —
Chrysorobin 20 grains.
Collodion . 1^ drachms.
Apply with a camel's-hair pencil every day or two to the wart.
White specks are frequently created by the misuse of
the cuticle knife in the hands of the manicure. But some-
times they are caused by an interception under the nails
of the particles of juice which nourish them.
A simple remedy of equal parts of Burgundy pitch and
myrrh, melted and applied to the nail at night will fre-
quently cure the spots.
THE HAND
297
Wearing a pair of rubber gloves at night will result in
great improvement to your hands. Where the hands have
been injured by housework it takes some little time to
get them into good condition again. Of course, you should
wash your hands with great care just before putting on
the gloves.
A.— 16
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE FOOT AND FOOT GEAR
There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip,
Nay, her foot speaks. — Shakespeare.
HE Cinderella foot is passe de mode, and if we have
cause occasionally to regret a vagary or freak
of the "new woman" she deserves to be eter-
nally blessed for having made it the fashion
for our feet to bear some harmonious propor-
tion to the frame they are to support, and to
have made it no longer true, as cleverly stated
by a well-known author, that the length of a woman's
skirts is directly proportional to the size of her feet, and
that women with large feet are always greatly shocked at
the immodesty of those who have small pedal extremities
and are ''always trying to show them."
Smallness alone was, in my girlhood, the test of beauty
in feet, as I recollect it. I remember perfectly my mother's
look of surprise and stern disapproval when I had to suc-
cumb to a number three shoe, and how we were brought
(298)
THE FOOT AND FOOT GEAR 299
up on a tradition that our maternal grandmother had such
tiny feet she always wore children's shoes in size, and had
her satin gaiters sewed on her little feet each day that not
even a silken lace might interfere with the lines of beauty
and symmetry.
But in the emancipation of women, who are no longer
dolls or toys, but fine, vigorous, splendid creatures of su-
perb, physical development from tip to toe, feet of proper
size to sustain a woman's weight are considered not only
more attractive to the eye, but correct form.
Unfortunately very few women born before the wave
of good sense have sightly feet. Scarcely one woman in
a thousand has a foot free from deformity or blemish of
some kind.
For generations back women insisted upon wearing
shoes too short or too narrow, and shoemakers were com-
pelled to cater to their desires and furnish shoes built
almost upon the Chinese plan for the deluded creatures
who insisted upon having what they were pleased to con-
sider small feet.
It is also really astonishing that we should have so
long submitted to the tyranny of French heels and vise-
like foot gear. 1 look at my number five, flat-heeled,
broad-soled shoes, in which I walk many and many a mile
without fatigue, and think how foolish I once was, — and
not so foolish either, for in those days common-sense shoes
were not to be had.
Fortunately we know better nowadays, and our little
girls are growing up with beautiful, undeformed feet ; but,
as I have said, so recently have we come to our senses
300 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
that the woman past thirty with a perfect foot is almost
unknown.
Occasionally an actress is said to have a perfect foot,
and her fame is made thereby. Yet when "Trilby" was
played all over the country by different women, there was
never a real Trilby foot that bore unscathed the telltale
test of the photographer.
The foot of the average woman should require at least
a number five shoe. A large foot on a tiny woman is not
beautiful, but on the other hand neither is a tiny little foot
artistically pretty or agreeable to gaze upon. It is harmony
that makes be&.uty, — proper proportions that make harmony.
A woman's foot attains its normal size at about twenty-
two. Strange to say, the foot at sixteen or seventeen is
larger than a few years later. Shoemakers all say that
girls between sixteen and seventeen have feet that are not
yet shaped. They are fat and flabby. At about twenty
the foot gets its proper shape, the flesh grows firmer, the
muscles and tendons stronger and the bones become well
set. When the foot gets its settled shape a narrower shoe
is required, frequently two sizes narrower than could have
been worn at sixteen. At about forty a woman's feet go
back to the flabby state.
It is true that small feet are considered by many a
mark of aristocracy, but they certainly do not indicate
superiority of intellect, for many brainy women of su-
preme intelligence have had very large feet. For example,
George Eliot and Mme. de Stael, the most brilliant
women intellectually of their day, had such large and un-
gainly feet that they were made miserable by the con-
THE FOOT AND FOOT GEAR 301
sciousness of their undue proportions. Mme. de Stael once
ventured to assume the role of a Greek statue in some
tableaux vivants, and was grievously offended by the witty
Talleyrand's hon mot that he recognized the impersonator
at once by the ''pied de Stael. '^
A long hand and foot are said to indicate mental su-
periority and a capacity for a larger grasp and a greater
tenacity of purpose than smaller members. The proper
size of a woman's foot varies from five and one-half to
nine inches — that is, the foot that has been unrestricted
from infancy and permitted to grow as freely as the head,
without stricture of any kind. The fashionable Chinese foot
is about three and one-half inches in length, and I have
seen the feet of women in modern Europe which were re-
duced by tight squeezing to almost Chinese proportions.
A truly beautiful foot must first be free from all blem-
ishes, and in perfect proportion to the leg and stature.
The instep should be high, or moderately high, and the
portion under the instep hollow and well raised above the
level of the sole, the toes regular and well developed, the
heel narrow and nonprojecting — the general outline of
the perfect foot is long, slender and graceful. The toes of
the beautiful foot, according to Flaxman, should follow
each other imperceptibly in a graceful curve from the first
to the fifth, and in the Greek foot, according to the most
famous statues, the second toe was made longer than the
great toe. The beauty of the longer second toe is dis-
puted. The skin of the main part of the foot should be
of an almost marble whiteness, and the toes and heels
alone a rosy pink.
ClLBEIfl'!*'
1^^-..V
CHAPTER XXXV
THE FOOT AND FOOT GEAR — Concluded
Her feet beneath her petticoats
Like little mice stole in and out.
— Sir John Suckling.
^HE present generation of girls should at least
have feet free from all defects and blemishes,
if not perfect in shape, for all daughters of
sensible mothers have been shod for twenty
years back v\^ith flat, common-sense, heelless
shoes. No girl v^hose feet are thus attired
ever has been known to suffer from a corn,
distorted nail, or even from a callous spot.
The high French heel is accountable not only for the
distortion of the first joint of the great toe, but for innu-
merable feminine internal complaints — besides which, it
is utterly impossible for any woman alive to walk or
dance gracefully in high French heels. It is said that a
fashionable French woman once asked a famous artist
(302)
THE FOOT AND FOOT GEAR 303
how to acquire a graceful carriage, and was told to take
off her high-heeled shoes, place them on top of her head,
and practice walking until she could do so without the
little shoes showing the slightest quiver of motion.
''When you can walk," he said, ''with those shoes per-
fectly balanced, you will have the gait of a goddess, and
for the first time since French heels were invented they
will really have served to help and not to disfigure a
woman."
Du Maurier's description of Trilby's foot has done
effective missionary work among us. I give it even
though you all may have read it, for it is very pertinent
to this subject : —
"Poor Trilby! The shape of those lovely, slender feet
(that were neither large nor small) facsimiled in dusty,
pale, plaster of paris, survives on the shelves and walls
of many a studio throughout the world, and many a
sculptor yet unborn has yet to marvel at their strange
perfection in studious despair.
" It is a wondrous thing, the human foot — like the
human hand, even more so perhaps ; but unlike the hand,
with which we are so familiar, it is seldom a thing of
beauty in leather boots or shoes.
" So that it is hidden away in disgrace, a thing to be
thrust out of sight and forgotten. It can sometimes
be very ugly indeed — the ugliest thing there is, even
in the fairest and highest and most gifted of her sex ;
and then it is of an ugliness to chill and kill romance
and scatter love's young dream^ and almost break th^
heart,
304 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
"And all for the sake of a high heel and a ridiculously
pointed toe — mean thing at the best !
''Nothing else that Mother Nature has to show, not
even the human face divine, has more subtle power to
suggest high physical distinction, happy evolution, and su-
preme development ; the lordship of man over beast, the
lordship of man over man, the lordship of woman over
all!"
These are certainly not the feet of our grandmothers,
for they
/' Like little mice stole in and out
As if they feared the light."
The gods be thanked for common-sense feet at last, and
for a Du Maurier to make them fashionable.
For those of us who have suffered a martyrdom for
past offenses in improper care of the feet, including the
tight, French-heeled boot of torture, a word as to the toilet
of the feet.
First, and most important of all, to preserve them in a
thoroughly healthy and comfortable state, thorough clean-
liness is of course requisite. They should be bathed daily,
and two or three times a week they should be soaked in
warm or tepid water, and well scrubbed with a brush and
soap, so that every particle of dust or perspiration which
constantly accumulates about them may be removed. The
best time for this operation is just before retiring. Once
a week at least the feet should be carefully examined after
the soaking above referred to — every particle of loose skin
should be removed while they are still soft from the warm
water — and callosities or indurations should be rubbed
THE FOOT AND FOOT GEAR 305
quite smooth with a bit of pumice stone, or better still, a
Japanese corn file. The nails should also, about once a
week, be carefully inspected, cut so that their length is
just the length of the toe. The shape of the nail should
follow the natural curve of the toe. If they be allowed
to grow longer they are liable to be forced back by the
pressure of the shoe and to grow into the flesh. Be care-
ful also not to cut the nails of the toes too short, as in
such cases the toes lose their natural support. Cutting
the nail to the quick has actually caused lockjaw and
death, an authentic case being on record of a lady who
died of tetanus or lockjaw nine days after cutting the
nail by accident into the quick.
Nails that have a tendency to grow sidewise should
be kept carefully pared. Where the nail grows into the
flesh it may be cured by making a Y-shaped cut in the
center, the broad part of the Y at the top of the nail.
For ingrowing nails Monin also advises bandaging the
toe with compresses saturated with perchlorate of iron.
Despite the protest of many girls who are not yet con-
verted, ingrowing toe nails are invariably produced by
pressure or a blow. A shoe too narrow across the toe
or tread of the foot, or insufficiently long for ease and
comfort, though large enough elsewhere, either cramps or
distorts the fore part of the foot and toes 'or arrests the
nails in their proper growth forward, forcing them back
upon the sensitive flesh at their roots and sides and caus-
ing them to grow in width and thickness only.
The results of tight shoes are not always immediate,
but they are sure and very painful,
306 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Corns are horny indurations with a very sensitive
nucleus or base, and appear on the exposed portions of
the joints of the toes. They are certainly caused by an
undue and continuous pressure, and will usually disappear
with large, easy shoes — otherwise, though frequently taken
out, they will reappear. To remove them, soak the feet
for twenty minutes and pare the corns as close as possi-
ble to the surface, taking care, however, never to make
them bleed, then use one of the following remedies ; they
are all effective : —
CURE FOR CORNS
Take a lemon, cut off a small piece, then nick it so as to let
in the toe with the corn ; tie this on at night so that it cannot
move, and in the morning you will find that, with a blunt knife,
you may remove a considerable portion of the corn. Make two or
three applications, and great relief will be the result.
The pain occasioned by corns may be greatly allevi-
ated by the following preparation: —
Into an ounce vial put two drachms of muriatic acid and six
drachms of rose water. With this mixture wet the corns night and
morning for three days. Soak the feet every evening in warm water
without soap. Put one-third of the acid into the water, and the corn
will soon be dissolved.
SOFT CORNS
Soft corns may be cured by using the following : —
Dip a piece of linen rag in turpentine, and wrap around the
toe, on which the corn is situated, night and morning, and in a
few days the corn will disappear.
Nitric acid, caustic, and strong tincture of iodine are
also used for removing corns.
THE FOOT AND FOOT GEAR 307
Corn plasters may be procured of an apothecary or
made at home by cutting a small circular bit of leather
or kid with a hole the size of the corn cut out in the
center. Spread the kid with a corn plaster. The French
corn plaster called verdigris is made as follows : —
FRENCH CORN PLASTER
Beeswax, four parts ; Burgundy pitch, three parts ; malt, add Ven-
ice turpentine (verdigris in fine powder), of each one part, and stir the
mass until nearly cold. This is the old form of "verdigris plas-
ter " (emplastrum aeruginis) of the Paris " Codex."
TENDER FEET
Rubbing the soles of the feet with vinegar will ease
them when they are sore from walking or standing.
The disagreeable and peculiar odor arising from the
feet of some persons is produced from an unnatural per-
spiration. In all such cases, the greatest possible cleanli-
ness is of the utmost importance. Salt footbaths or
baths of vinegar and water are frequently effective. Spir-
its of camphor may also be applied, and will sometimes
cure this very unfortunate condition. Mustard footbaths
are advised, the object being to stimulate the circulation
and evoke a natural excretion.
Tender feet are caused by wearing stockings too thin
for the weight of the shoe, and of course an ill-shaped
boot or shoe, or one not sufficiently porous to admit of
the escape of perspiration will also cause tender feet.
In this connection patent leather is to be condemned.
The process of manufacture makes it impervious to air.
The foot perspires and swells and the whole brood of foot
308 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
ills follows in due course. I have been asked frequently if
patent leather shoes should be worn and I have been
constrained to answer that they should, not be worn but
doubtless will be, for some time to come. They surely
look dressy but hardly more so than light French calf or
kid if properly cared for.
The best treatment for tender feet is soaking them
nightly in bran and water or salt water. Let them remain
in the footbath fully half an hour. Nothing so rests tired
feet as the salt footbath.
Coldness of the feet indicates delicate health, and im-
paired circulation. Cold feet are destroyers of complexions.
It is said that rubbing the feet and ankles with the bare
hands, pressing just as strongly as the feet can endure,
for ten or fifteen minutes every night just before retiring,
will cure the most stubborn cases of cold feet.
For profuse perspiration, try dusting the feet, which
should be thoroughly washed and carefully dried at least
twice a day, with the following powder : —
Talc 60 grammes.
Subnitrate of bismuth ... 45 grammes.
Permanganate of potash . . 13 grammes.
Salicylate of soda .... 2 grammes.
This powder must be sifted through fine silk bolting cloth, so
that it is impalpable.
BUNIONS
Bunions are the result of an inflammation or swelling
of the previously enlarged or distorted joint of the great
toe. A distorted joint is not a bunion until it has in-
flamed and suppurated. Short shoes and French heels are
THE FOOT AND FOOT GEAR 309
the almost invariable cause of the distorted great toe
joint. The toe is actually dislocabed in its effort to adapt
itself to a shoe which will not yield in length. There are
a number of mechanical appliances exploited for the cure
of distorted joints. I have never yet seen a cure effected.
The toe joint may be set just as any dislocated bone
may be put back in place, and if done immediately, and
the patient will forever after wear long shoes and for-
swear French heels, it will remain in its proper place —
half an hour's confinement, however, in a short shoe or
slipper, will dislocate the joint again.
When the bunion becomes very painful, with great
inflammation, and a manifest gathering of pus is forming,
poulticing should be resorted to. Nothing is so effective
as ground flaxseed for this purpose. Make a tiny num-
ber of poultices in little linen bags; keep applying them
just as hot as they can be borne — spread a little carbo-
lated vaseline over the bunion before putting the poultice
on. If the pain be intense, add a few drops of laudanum
to the vaseline.
Where the feet are cut or an abrasion occurs, they
should be soaked and carefully washed, and further pro-
tected either by a little ointment secured with a scrap
of lint or a bit of court-plaster. When a blister has formed,
it is best to prick or snip it so as to let all the water or
serum out ; then bind it over carefully, first applying a
healing ointment.
To all women who can afford to do so, I advise the
weekly care of a good pedicure. The torture which only
a corn can produce is easily averted if the feet be cared
310 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
for, and bunions and other atrocities are unknown to
those who early learn the way to treat those useful mem-
bers, the feet.
Pointed-toed shoes have certainly deserved a portion of
the anathemas hurled at them, but I make a feeble protest
for them as proper enough for people with pointed feet.
A boot or shoe should certainly conform to the shape of
the foot, and about eight people out of ten have feet
which are much more pointed than square at the toe.
I cannot see why the hideous square-toed shoe is not
quite as grotesque as the extreme pointed tip (called in
Paris, ''cure-dent" — tooth-pick). There can be but one
opinion as to heels — they should be low and broad.
No department of dress, indeed, shows more wholesome
improvement during the past decade than foot gear. Most
men and many women appreciate the genuine comfort of
having the shoe made to conform somewhat to the shape
of the foot instead of compelling the latter delicate mem-
ber to do the stretching and shaping at any cost. A
maker of women's boots once said : " It's easy enough to
fit the feminine foot, but mighty hard sometimes to fit
the feminine head." To-day, happily, it is easy to fit both,
for broad, foot-form shoes for ordinary w^ear are "just the
fashion." Whatever ridicule may be aimed at women for
following masculine styles, it is certainly well for the feet
of the growing generation that mannish styles in foot
gear are the vogue among the gentler sex. The shoe a la
7node is broad in the right place, i. e., along a line running
between the main joints of the great and small toe.
Plenty of room here makes an easy shoe and relieves the
THE FOOT AND FOOT GEAR 311
pressure on the ball of the foot, thus preventing an en-
largement of the joint which is fatal to the beauty of the
j^ied de femme.
It is suggested that a woman should always have
several pairs of shoes and boots and change them often,
thus allowing the leather to dry out and resume its nor-
mal condition.
The use of shoe forms is also advised, to stretch out
the wrinkles and creases. Shoes thus cared for wear
longer and always look better.
cij^m^
CHAPTER XXXVI
FOOT MASSAGE
Full of strange shapes, of habits and of forms. — Love's Labour Lost,
^ROM childhood we impose upon our feet, making
them conform to a shape in shoes decreed by
fashion and quite at variance with Nature's
arrangement.
I find ninety-nine women out of a hundred
have taken just such or kindred liberties with
their pedal extremities, and once the feet
have been thus tampered with, they never quite recover.
Massage is a wonderful method for soothing the aches
of feet that have been improperly shod, as well as for the
pain that comes from overexertion, long walking, or stand-
ing.
To give tired feet, restful, delightful massage the op-
erator need not be an expert masseuse.
The process begins with an application of a quieting
lotion to the foot by the hand of the operator.
(312)
TO MASSAGE THE SORE JOINT HOLD THE TOE IN PLACE BY SEPARATING THE GREAT AND
SECOND TOES
RUB ALWAYS FROM THE ANKLE TOWARD THE TOES
(313)
TO RELIEVE BUNIONS AND SWOLLEN JOINTS
A BtT OF THICK FELT BETWEEN THE GREAT AND SECOND TOES WILL GREATLY RELIEVE THE DISTORTED JOINT
(314)
FOOT MASSAGE 315
Arnica diluted with warm water will prove a simple
and soothing application.
After the lotion has dried rub the foot gently, using
a good toilet cream or oil of sweet almonds. Always
draw the blood from the ankle or instep to the toes.
Support the instep or ball of the foot with the left hand
while rubbing with the right, using the downward move-
ment on the outside of foot and ankle. A rotary motion
on the instep is also very restful.
All the nerves start from the feet, which should be
treated the same as the head — removing the shoes and
elevating the feet to a comfortable position — not too high.
The foot should never be massaged without using a
little oil or cream. For a tender foot which perspires too
freely always use oil, alcohol and ammonia combined, one
ounce of oil, two ounces of alcohol and one tablespoonful
of ammonia. For a burning foot use cream or oil. Iodine
should never be used on the foot in its full strength.
After a corn has been cut, it should always be pro-
tected from the stocking (for an hour at least) by a piece
of adhesive plaster, or by applying some good cream and
wrapping a small piece of cotton around the toe.
Take extra care in fitting shoes. Pay no attention to
the toes, but fit the heel and instep, thus bringing the
pressure on the instep, where it should be, and not on the
toes.
There is no permanent cure for an enlarged joint or
corn. They can only be relieved, and all " magic cures "
should be avoided, as they eventually do more harm than
good.
A.— 17
316 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Ingrowing nails can be cured by proper cutting and
protecting the corners after the diseased part has been
removed, which is essentially the work of a skilled chirop-
odist.
Distorted great toe joints are always caused by shoes
too short for the foot.
To relieve the pain and throw the joint back into
place put a bit of thick felt between the great and second
toes.
To massage the sore joint always hold the toe in
place by separating the great and second toes. This of
itself will give relief. Never massage the great toe joint
by a pressure that will bend the great toe still further
toward the second toe.
A soda footbath is as effective as any other treatment
for burning feet. Take a handful of common washing
soda and let it dissolve in a large foot tub two-thirds full
of tepid water. Soak the feet in this bath for twenty
minutes. Usually it will remove the burning sensation
and give great relief.
Above all things avoid short shoes. They are the
cause of that obstinate and painful trouble called in-
growing toe nail. The best shoe is that which is long and
broad, with the sole projecting as much as one-eighth of
an inch beyond the foot. Avoid extremely sharp-pointed
shoes. Happily they, are no longer in fashion, and the
woman who has a square foot need not pinch her toes in
order to be correct.
For tired and tender feet try bathing them in hot
water into which a big handful of sea salt has been dis-
USE THE ROTARY MOVEMENT ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE FOOT AND ANKLE
SUPPORT THE BALL OF THE FOOT WITH THE LEFT HAND, MAKE THE MOVEMENT ALWAYS
DOWNWARD WITH THE RIGHT (317)
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FOOT MASSAGE 319
solved. Let the feet remain in the water fifteen minutes.
Dry and rub the soles with half of a lemon. The relief
is most grateful.
Either one of these two formulas will be found effec-
tive for excessive and odorous perspiration: —
No. 1. — Oleate of zinc, ^ ounce; powdered starch, 1 ounce; sali-
cylic acid, 1 scruple.
No. 2. — Beta-naphthol, ^ drachm; distilled witch hazel, 4 ounces.
Apply well to the skin.
The following formulas represent good prescriptions for
the treatment of corns and bunions : —
I
Borate of sodium ... 1 drachm.
Extract of cannabis . . 1 scruple.
Collodion 1 ounce.
Paint over the corn or bunion every day once or twice, and after
five or six applications the superficial growth can be scraped off.
II
Salicylic acid .... 1 drachm.
Cocaine 5 grains.
Collodion ^ ounce.
Paint over the corn or bunion twice a day, and scrape away
the superficial growth at the end of three or four days.
The following recipe will be found good for the treat-
ment of chilblains : —
Camphor . . . ■♦ . ... 1 drachm.
Beta-naphthol .... 10 grains.
Cocaine 5 grains.
Diachylon ointment . . 1 ounce.
After bathing the part in hot water, balsam of copaiba is painted
over the surface.
CHAPTER XXXVII
LATE HOURS AND DISSIPATION
To sing a requiem and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls. — Hamlet.
'hen one considers how many women there are
whose happiness and comfort have been de-
stroyed through dissipated husbands, or be-
cause of the vagaries of an intemperate son,
it is almost a wonder that every one of the
gentler sex is not a total abstainer.
Time was when for a woman to drink
spirits, or even malt liquor was scandalous. This, how-
ever, was in the days of our national isolation when vis-
itors to our shores were few and foreign travel tedious
and expensive. Now the gay and vicious capitals of Eu-
rope are within speaking distance, and, if this were not so,
there has for a long time been a constant influx from the
drinking nations of the Old World. The German has
taught us to be fond of our beer, which, indeed, might
(320)
LATE HOURS AND DISSIPATION 321
not be harmful to any great extent if used in the mod-
erate and rational way of the German himself. But the
American disposition is not the Teutonic. One of our
characteristics is to endeavor to "beat people at their
own game." It is so in commerce, agriculture, invention
and in beer drinking. The German is satisfied with his
single mug, which he drinks slowly. We go him one
better, guzzle two glasses, go about our business and come
back later for another to find our friend still musing over
his single mug. The Frenchman, from the land of brandy,
champagne and claret is generally satisfied with a pint
of the latter at his dinner. With us the claret is too
often the beginning, champagne follows, then brandy, and
the next day — absinth to pull us together. And not our
men of fashion alone, — that were bad enough, — but many
women vie with the sterner sex in the convivial round —
so-called respectable women, too, and those not respect-
able. The latter soon drop out of sight ; the former in
many cases press into their places, and the dance of dis-
sipation goes on. Here are two instances from many
which have come under my personal observation. I cite
them in this place mainly to show the effect of dissipation
upon beauty, health and morality.
There is no dodging the fact that the youthful beauty
of the American girl in its original charm rarely outlives
the third society season. A woman's face is the mirror
that reflects her life, and the face of a typical New York
girl-woman, — for she whom I have in my mind can't at
this writing be a day over two and twenty,— is such a
pronounced example of the results of three seasons of New
322 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
York fashionable life that I here analyze it and endeavor
to show just how the process has been accomplished.
Miss , a charming young creature of eighteen, was
married in a fashionable New York church.
After a brief wedding journey the bridal couple re-
turned to New York. Then followed a first season in
fashionable high life. The little wife began the career of
dissipation with an evident distaste for all-night balls and
champagne suppers, but, as usual, the pleasures and excite-
ments of society triumphed over simplicity.
The girl who once rose at seven, fresh as a bird and
sweet as a flower, now dragged herself wearily about her
boudoir and dressing room morning after morning. She
was never, as she herself declared, fit to be seen before
one o'clock. When, braced up on strong coffee and wine
of cocoa, she descended to second breakfast at that hour,
and after a glass of wine and enough sustaining food to
nourish the proverbial canary, she began her day of social
duties and pleasures.
Night after night she insulted her strong young stom-
ach by such a combination as would make an ostrich run
to cover. Terrapin, champagne ; salad, champagne ; ices,
champagne ; pates, champagne ; and champagne as a run-
ning accompaniment to all sweets, pastries — everything
under a Delmonico or Waldorf-Astoria moon, or that could
be thought of or advised by a dyspepsia breeder in cook's
clothing, was thrust into this once good little stomach.
At the end of the year the pretty child was a haggard
young thing, with the color almost gone out of her cheeks
and lips. Always so tired. At the end of three years I
LATE HOURS AND DISSIPATION 323
beg to point out to you at any one of your ultrafashion-
able functions, a young woman who takes her cock-
tails before she can even swallow her coffee, when she
is awaking from a narcotically induced sleep about
midday; a young woman who smokes cigarettes almost
incessantly, and whose face is, at the end of three years,
such a startling record of the dissipations of smart life
that the most callous heart is moved to pity in contem-
plating it.
Who shall say that he or she does not recognize the
type ? Who will save her ?
The second case is sadder still.
Not long ago I received a letter from a young woman
whom I had known in other days, when she was a beau-
tiful girl, — a belle of the most fashionable set in a not
very distant city.
The letter was w^ritten from a private hospital. The
writer recalled herself to me, and begged me to come and
see her. She had, she said, something of importance to
say to me.
So I went, and when I was ushered into the room
occupied by Mrs. Gordon, as I shall call her, I saw the
saddest sight my eyes have rested upon for many and
many a long day.
Fanny, when I knew her some years ago, was a charm-
ing young creature of eighteen. She was about that time
married to an immensely rich young man in a fashionable
church near by, and every one said that she had made the
match of the season. Certainly it was a great marriage
if position and money make greatness.
324 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Almost up to her wedding day my little friend had
lived a healthful, normal life of great simplicity. A wed-
ding tour to Europe followed by a presentation to Her
Majesty, the Queen, and, according to the reports in the
columns devoted to the world of fashion, a new belle had
daw^ned upon the social horizon.
Little Mrs. G's beauty, her toilets, her jewels, the atten-
tion and admiration she attracted— we heard it all over
here. When the G's came home, the stamp of fashionable
dissipation was plainly seen upon her.
For several years she reigned undisputed over a circle
of devoted adorers. Then there came a grave scandal, a
separation, stories of recklessness — more scandal, and, at
last, a total disappearance from the world that formerly
knew her and easily forgot her.
Casually I heard that Fanny G. was living in England.
Years passed, and lately I sat by her bedside and watched
her pass away. She died from the excessive use of stimu-
lants and narcotics. She was a little over thirty years of
age, but she looked at least fifty.
The day I went to see her in response to her request
she said to me : —
"You see the price I have paid for my mistakes. I
am giving my life. Oh, I know it is only a question of a
little time; they cannot deceive me. I am paying with
my life for the ignorance that was the first cause of all
my misfortunes.
''Of course, girls usually won't listen to the experience
of others. They have to learn from their own, but I want
you to beg the pretty girls who are as foolish and inno-
LATE HOURS AND DISSIPATION 325
cent as I was, to remember that nothiDg will so soon de-
stroy their beauty as dissipation."
Here she smiled faintly -and said: —
"Perhaps you can scare them into being temperate.
Tell them how soon every vestige of beauty goes from
the woman who drinks or takes narcotics.
*' Tell them that champagne suppers, tonics containing
cocaine, cocktails, and all the rest come first and destroy
a woman's will power and make those dreadful drooping
lines about the mouth because the muscles are bound
to relax when they are loosed from the control of the
will.
" Explain to them that abnormal excitement drives
normal sleep away. Then comes the most awful of all
the demons that conspire to destroy a woman — nar-
cotics.
" Look at me ! See the horrible work of drugs ! I am
just thirty and my teeth have almost crumbled away. Mor-
phine injections have destroyed them. My beautiful hair,
you see, is nearly gone. My face is old. The dreadful
lines tell their ov^n story — dissipation and drugs.
" When I first tasted wine, I did not like it, but it kept
me going, so I took it until little by little I learned to
drink alcoholic mixtures. Very soon I found I could not
sleep, and a friend gave me a prescription for a sleeping
draught, which seemed to work miracles. After I had taken
it for nearly a year, I found that one of the ingredients
was a form of opium. By this time I was taking alco-
holic stimulants daily and the sleeping medicine at night.
J tried^ but could not stop.
326 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
"It is impossible for a woman to be morally healthy
when she is never really in a normal state. So I lost my
husband, my friends, everything — and hope as well."
We buried my poor little friend very quietly, very ten-
derly. She had paid the awful price of yielding to temp-
tations which to-day beset a woman, no matter what her
station in life, as never before.
I give you her message, which forcibly impresses the
fact that excess is fatal to beauty and destructive of hap-
piness and morality as well. But in this connection I want
to say a cheering word spoken from an experience on two
continents extending over well-nigh a generation. It is this.
The day of drinking men and drinking women, except
among this " fast set " I have described or among the very
lowest classes, is dying out. It is no longer the fashion
to drink, especially to excess. The demands of home-life
among women and the sharp competitive business struggle
among men, alike require clear brains and steady nerves.
Women lose caste and men lose their jobs when once
fairly convicted of habitual excess. And this is as it should
be. It is but the dispensation of a wise Providence.
And right here I wish to air the eternal grudge I bear
against tea or coffee drinking to excess. The young should
never drink either. It retards their growth and makes
them prematurely old. Unless used in^ moderation, even
by elders, we note strained or shattered nerves causing
chronic insomnia. The good doctors will order bromides;
then come narcotics — and ruin.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
PHYSICAL CULTURE
Health must be there, or heauty cannot be.
HYSiCAL culture has, happily, passed the "craze''
stage, and has settled down to a sensible and
reasonable amount of daily exercise.
Thinking women who know something of
anatomy and a little of physiology, are satis-
fied that nothing can take the place of the
daily exercise which brings all the muscles of
the body into play, expands the lungs, and sends the blood
tingling through the veins. These women know that by
a certain amount of physical training they will never lose
their supple grace ; will never develop huge abdomens, and
hips, aijd will never join the army of distorted creatures,
who suffer from the results of overeating and inertia,
known as the woman with the middle-aged figure, — the
women who, as poor Kate Field used to say, ''will insist
(327)
328 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
upon sitting on the ends of their spines.'' There are a
number of excellent gymnasiums in every large city where
women may go, when they wish, to take exercise, but the
average woman may perfectly well practice gymnastics in
her bedroom.
Deep Breathing
First of all should come proper breathing.
It is somewhat remarkable that we should have been
breathing day and night ever since we came into the
world, and yet that very few of us know how to breathe
properly. At least there are very few of us who make a
daily practice of deep breathing — not an occasional respi-
ration longer than usual, but fifty or more of them taken
systematically during the course of the day. It is said
that nine-tenths of our colds can be cured in their in-
cipiency by deep breathing.
I have heard, indeed, of a health club which enjoins
upon members that each shall take at least one hundred
deep breaths, ten at a time, during each day.
It is hard, however, to think to do anything ten times
at regular intervals throughout our waking hours. It is
too much like taking medicine, or rather not taking it,
for who has not placed a quota of powders in the pocket
or purse to doctor with while at business and found the
whole lot intact on returning home at night ? But deep
breathing is important enough to pay one to form the
habit. If we take a daily walk for exercise solely, the
deep breathing may become a natural accompaniment.
Those who exercise day or night in their rooms can throw
PHYSICAL CULTURE 331
open the window and take a dozen deep draughts as a
preliminary.
We can all, every one of us, enjoy a few full respira-
tions, the more the better, when we are leaving home in
the morning or returning at night. Let me give you my
little system which will soon develop into a habit. When
you start out, take only one inhalation (always through
the nose) to each four steps, and expel the air through the
mouth on the next four. Keep this up for a day or two
and you will find that five steps to a breath will come
quite as easy and after a while six or seven. When you
can take eight steps at your ordinary gait while inflating
the lungs only once and when you can empty them dur-
ing the next eight steps, and keep it up for ten minutes,
you will have a chest expansion which will stand you
well in hand against any attack of lung trouble, and you
will have acquired a habit of deep breathing, and erect-
ness of figure which will be of value to you as long as
you live.
The ordinary half breath, such as we take when sleep-
ing, or unconsciously, when awake, does not go to the bot-
tom of the lungs and enter all the little air cells whose
function it is to oxygenate the blood. As a consequence,
the air in these unused cells is valueless and the blood
which comes for its oxygen goes away without it. This
left-over, shopworn air needs to be replaced with fresh
goods and the deep breath is the only thing that will do
it. It is said to require seven full inspirations to clear
the lungs entirely of this residuum and fill all the cells
with pure air. This done you will often feel a tingling
332 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
sensation as the blood courses through the veins, you will
become sensible that your clothing is too tight for you,
that you are a much bigger individual than you thought
you were and you become aware that you are looking up
and over peoples heads instead of down at their knees.
The hermetically sealed house which you have lain in all
night, or the stuffy office which has held you all day are
in turn forgotten. You face the wind like a fallow deer
and are at one with Nature.
A breath is a little thing, but a deep breath, if it be-
come a habit, is a big thing — well-nigh big enough to
make the difference between a consumptive and an athlete.
Cultivate the habit of deep breathing in the open air and
then boudoir gymnastics, persistently followed, will pre-
vent you from growing stiff or stout, and will remedy
many physical defects which are the results usually of
bad habits and inaction.
Even young girls inclined to stoop, and anaemic, may
take exercises every morning which will prove of incal-
culable benefit to them. Simple appliances only are needed,
or, indeed, none at all. The boudoir exercises may include
the use of the stick, dumb-bells and clubs. They may be
perfectly well taken in the nightdress. The windows
should be thrown open, enough to admit the fresh air.
The first exercise should be a breathing exercise. The
subject stands perfectly erect, heels together, and arms ex-
tended straight in front, palms touching. The palms are
now separated, the arms sweep backward. The exerciser
meanwhile draws in a deep breath. Next the arms are
thrown as far backward as possible without inconvenience,
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PHYSICAL CULTURE 335
the lungs are expanded, and the exercises reversed, the
arms brought to the first position and the breath exhaled.
These movements should be repeated about five times.
The next movement is as follows : —
The subject drops her arms close to her hips and raises
them above her head without bending the elbows, but
drawing in the breath during this movement, exhaling the
breath as the arms are dropped to the hips again. Next
the subject doubles her fists and draws them toward her
until they strike her shoulders, the elbows being close to
her sides. Then she extends them full to the front as
though striking at a punching bag, inhaling and exhaling
at each movement. The neck exercises should follow ; the
subject lets her head drop forward as though she had no
control over the muscles of the neck. She then rolls her
head with a circular motion from side to side as though
she were trying to describe a circle.
The next boudoir gymnastics are usually those with
the dumb-bells. The first four simple dumb-bell exercises
are practiced. The leaning movements, where the subject
leans forward until the tips of the fingers touch the toes
are also excellent. The leg swing, where the subject tries
to see how large a circle she can describe in the air by
swinging first one leg and then the other, using the large
toe as a marker, is used for developing the thigh, and
brings into action all the muscles of the leg from the foot
to the hip.
High kicking is also practiced, but I disapprove of it,
as I have known serious results to follow, and it is usu-
ally too much of an exertion.
336 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
There are several good books on physical culture, most
of them a little too complicated for use without the aid
of an instructor. The broomstick exercises, as well as
those of the bells and the clubs, are perfectly described in
a little book called "Handbook of Light Gymnastics,"
which can be purchased for a very small sum at any of
the booksellers, and is very simple.
Another and more detailed book giving directions for
the use of dumb-bells is *' Beale's Handbook of Calisthenics."
This costs at retail about seventy-five cents.
AN IlNn/ITATION TO
CONJUMPTIQ
CONSUMPTION
DEFIED
EXERCISES IN PHYSICAL CULTURE
(337)
(338)
PHYSICAL CULTURE— LING MOVEMENTS
CHAPTER XXXIX
PHYSICAL CULTURE — Continued
Have mind upon your health. — Julius Csesar.
^HE Swedish or Ling system and that of Dr.
Schreiber require no apparatus or aid of any-
kind; are easily taught, and do not involve
any great fatigue. The method of Dr. Schrei-
ber consists solely in a series of rhythmic ges-
tures of the body and limbs, performed in the
following order : —
1st. Describe a circular movement with each arm twenty
times in succession. Extend the arms forward, outward
and upward, thirty times in succession, taking eight or
ten deep inspirations between each series.
2d. Execute a circular movement from the waist, sway-
ing the upper part of the body slowly round, the hands
resting on the hips, thirty times.
3d. Extend the leg as nearly at right angles with the
body as possible, twelve times each side, taking eight or
ten deep inspirations between each series.
A.-18 • (339)
340 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
4th. Extend and bend the foot twenty times each side ;
perform the gesture of reaping or sawing thirty times;
bend each knee rapidly twenty times ; take eight or ten
inspirations.
5th. Eaise the arm swiftly and rapidly, as in the action
of throwing a lance, twelve times in succession ; throw
out both arms simultaneously twenty or thirty times;
take eight or ten deep inspirations.
6th. Trot on one spot, resting the hands on the hips,
and lifting the feet briskly, a hundred to three hundred
times. Take eight or ten deep inspirations.
7th. Jump with the hands on the hips, and the head
and body erect, fifty or a hundred times. Take eight or
ten inspirations.
The proper execution of these various movements,
which should be performed with vigor but without haste
and with intermissions for rest, should not consume more
than a good half hour of time. Every gesture should be
well defined and separated by a little pause from the pre-
ceding and subsequent movement. No woman should ever
exercise to the limit of her strength, and pain and ex-
haustion are to be feared and avoided. The room for
taking these exercises should be spacious, well ventilated,
and with just as little furniture as possible. The dress of
the performer should be loose and light. The modern
gymnasium suit is exactly adapted to this work. Low-
heeled, easy shoes should be worn — or better still, shoes
without heels at all.
While adequate exercise without apparatus is quite
possible, the latter, however, is of special value as a daily
PHYSICAL CULTURE— DUMB-BELL EXERCISES
(341)
4; TRYING FOR THE GOAL
2: A GOOD CATCH
3: READY TO THROW
1 : MAKING A PASS
(342) THE GAME OF BASKET BALL (A HEALTHFUL PASTIME)
PHYSICAL CULTURE 343
reminder. For instance, a Whitely Exerciser hanging in
your room will help keep you to your work, especially as
it admits of a great variety of movements including some
of the most beneficial out-door amusements, such as row-
ing and swimming. It can be used by man or woman,
boy or girl, and makes the muscles supple, not lumpy as
may be the case from dumb-bell work.
Dumb-Bell Exercises to Build up the Chest
I am very often asked what kind of skin food shall be
used to develop the chest and bust.
Now, no skin food will do this work alone. The sub-
ject must practice light gymnastics and deep breathing.
In connection, massage, with a good skin food, is advised,
but it must be undei'stood that the skin food alone with-
out physical culture will do little or nothing in the way
of developing the chest and increasing the bust measure.
One of the simplest forms of light calisthenics is with
the bells. The small, wooden bells, weighing not more than
one-half pound each, are best.
The subject must wear a loose dress but no gymnasium
costume is necessary. Shoes with flat heels must be worn
and every garment should be loose admitting of great
freedom of motion. Don't attempt to exercise in a room
that is not well ventilated. Open the windows so you will
have fresh, pure air to breathe.
In exercising keep the head up and breathe deep and
full, allowing the chest to expand to the utmost. The
time to take a full breath is when the muscles are relaxed.
344 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
In the first movement for developing the chest, as seen
in illustration No. 1, the bells rest easily on the shoulders,
the subject throws the arm out and back ten times, alter-
nating first the right and then the left.
No. 2 shows the same movement performed with both
arms simultaneously. This movement should be practiced
ten times also.
Nos. 3 and 4 illustrate the second movement, showing
the arms and hands at rest and in action; practice this
also first with one hand, then the other, then with both,
ten times each.
Nos. 5 and 6 illustrate one of the very important
movements for the strengthening of the muscles. The
bells rest upon the shoulders, and in the movement
the arm is thrown straight up by the side of the head.
This movement should be repeated also ten times,
first with the right, then with the left, then simultane-
ously.
Nos. 7 and 8 illustrate the fourth movement. Here
the bells in repose rest upon the breast. In the move-
ment the subject throws the arm directly out and brings
it back again to the breast as before, first with the right,
then with the left, then with both hands.
There are other movements for chest development, but
these four are excellent and so simple that any woman
by looking at these pictures should understand perfectly
well how to perform them.
The great point about taking exercise is to be per-
sistent in it; not to overdo in the beginning, and not to
permit the monotony which is sure to follow at a certain
PHYSICAL CULTURE 345
stage in all gymnastics to discourage one and cause one
to drop the exercise.
You can't develop your chest in a day, or a week, or a
month ; you can do a great deal, however, in this way in
three months if you are in good health.
These exercises can be performed at home in one's own
bedroom; beginners should not practice over fifteen min-
utes a day for all four of the movements.
Never take the exercise when overfatigued, or directly
after eating.
In addition to the calisthenics, frequent ablutions with
warm water, massage with electricity, if it is to be had,
plenty of sleep in a well-ventilated room, and simple and
nourishing food are advised.
Flat-Chested Girls
Symptoms of a flat chest are seen in young girls fre-
quently as early as nine and ten years of age. Such
girls should be trained to increase the actual size of the
lungs — or, more properly speaking, to expand their unused
portions.
When the lungs expand fully they press the ribs and
the breastbone outward. For this reason, the best exer-
cises for an undeveloped child will be exercises that call
for repeated lung expansion. Singing lessons are excel-
lent, but must be taken with moderation during the form-
ing period. Young girls and children under fourteen
who have flat chests should be encouraged to exercise in
hopping, skipping and running. All of these exercises
346 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
expand the chest, although they are properly called leg
exercises.
In running, always begin slowly, then increase, and
never run to the utmost speed. Always close the run
with the same moderation with which it was commenced.
Stoop-Shouldered Women
No woman who stoops can have any style about her.
The woman with round shoulders may put on the most
swagger French gown, but she will not look a bit smarter
than though she were arrayed in a bargain-counter cos-
tume.
But round shoulders are very easily cured in young
people ; they are not difficult to repair in women over
thirty, and I have seen them remedied in grandmothers.
The first thing for a girl or woman to do who wants
to straighten her shoulders is for her to determine to
do so. She w^ill have to exert her will power, as one
always must to break a habit. For while round shoul-
ders are sometimes the result of a weakened system, they
are far oftener the effect of a habit proceeding from
carelessness. Girls who are studying, women who read, or
write, or who are troubled with defective vision, are most
apt to grow round shouldered.
The best way to cure round shoulders is by begin-
ning at night with a radical change in the sleeping po-
sition. All stoopers sleep upon high pillows, taking up
the bad chest contracting habit at night and continuing
it without intermission till morning. One small, flat
TO DEVELOP CALF OF LEG
TO REDUCE SIZE OF WAIST
CHEST DEVELOPMENT AND ROUNDED ARMS
EXERCISES IN PHYSICAL CULTURE
(347)
PHYSICAL CULTURE 349
pillow is all that any one needs. The round-shouldered
subject should really learn to sleep without any pillow
at all.
Then during every moment the subject is awake she
should make an effort to bear her infirmity in mind.
It is easy enough to stand erect — while you think of it —
but a trifle hard ''to remember not. to forget," as the chil-
dren say. Stand straight and look up, not down.
Round-shouldered persons are not often aware of the
fact, but they rarely look people in the eyes, as they
walk. To acquire the habit of holding the head up, there
is no better practice than walking about one's room for
half an hour each day with a book balanced on the head.
In addition to these simple methods practice chest
expansion. I wish all round-shouldered girls who write
me, and their name is legion, would try to cure themselves
and not expect that any external lotion or some absurd
and senseless application will do the work miraculously.
It is quite right to give nourishment to the skin and tis-
sues from the outside, and round-shouldered women fre-
quently need a skin food which should be rubbed well
into the chest, up and down the back and across the
shoulders. But skin food alone will accomplish very little.
You must stand erect, hold up your head, keep your
eyes on a level with people's faces, sleep in a proper po-
sition and practice persistently month in and out some
form of physical culture. The very simplest chest exer-
cises, heretofore described, will answer.
<. 9 GlLfjeUT » -V
CHAPTER XL
PHYSICAL CULTURE — Continued
Only we want a little personal strength. — Henry IV.
INCE the cry came from Paris that '*hips will not
be worn this season" many hitherto proud pos-
sessors of those articles began to think out vari-
ous schemes to rid themselves of the superfluous
flesh. Some women found this an easy task,
since it consisted merely of loosening a couple
of strings and removing the undesirable cushions bodily,
as it were. But, unfortunately, in consideration of the
present modes, every woman does not have hips of woven
wire and horse hair. They are layers of "too, too solid
flesh," which, despite her most vigorous fretting, sternly
refuse to "melt."
The present styles of dress necessitate more than ever
before a well "set up" figure, to borrow the West Point
vernacular.
(350)
HALF STANDING, TRUNK BENDING BACKWARD
(352)
EXERCISE FOR STRENGTHENING ABDOMINAL MUSCLES
SWEDISH MOVEMENTS
PHYSICAL CULTURE 353
The popular idea that your whole body will move grace-
fully if you hold your head up and your chin out has not
proved always satisfactory.
We are each more or less affected by the fact that we
come of generations of women who have, so to speak,
broken at the waist line. Sometimes because we and our
ancestors have worn indifferent corsets; frequently because
we have been swept off our feet by a dress-reform wave
and have thrown corsets to the dogs, metaphorically
speaking.
Whatever the cause, the average woman appears to be
woefully weak about the lumbar and abdominal regions.
The muscles are flabby and atrophied, and nothing but
physical exercise will restore them and give the woman
backbone enough to acquire what is known as the rigid
waist, which gives to the athletic girl and matron the
carriage and distinction the narrow gowning of to-day
requires.
The exercises illustrated here are especially designed to
give a woman a supple and elegant walk and carriage.
Practicing them persistently and patiently for six or
eight months, each movement ten or twenty times once
or twice a day, will make a goddess of a girl who now
looks more like a jellyfish than a Diana.
Practicing a week or spasmodically will have only the
effect of making the subject a bit lame in the regions of
the hitherto unused muscles, and very uncertain as to her
temper; so I do not advise the attempt and not the deed.
The exercises here illustrated are devised for the re-
duction of fat about the hips and abdomen,
354 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Miss Bergman, one of the most skillful exponents of
the Swedish system in this country, declares that in con-
nection with a proper diet and attention to general
health these movements, for which one of her pupils
posed under her directions, will not only result in the
elimination of fat, but will restore the subject to her
youthful grace and contour.
The Swedish exercises, like every other, should be
taken advisedly and with moderation in the beginning.
The chief trouble with obese subjects is that they rely
too much, it appears to me, upon their individual and
unaided exertions and pay too little attention to the
counsel of those who are by experience qualified to guide
them over the not altogether thornless paths that lead to
slimness — and without the aid and encouragement of a
person who understands what can and should be accom-
plished, the subject is very apt to attempt too much at
first, both in exercise and abstinence, and suffers in con-
sequence.
To Fill Out Thin and Scrawny Throats
At about forty, flabby throats may be looked for in
plump or stout women, and generally found. The mus-
cles that support the flesh lose their firmness usually
from lack of exercise, for the woman of forty, though she
is frequently unconscious of the fact, has grown a little
too self-indulgent ; does not bestir herself as she did ten
years before ; sleeps more ; eats more and, increasing in
flesh, is surprised to see that the once solid structure of
her throat has apparently lost its underbracing.
SITTING, TRUNK BENDING BACKWARD WITH ARMS BENDING AND STRETCHING
SAME AS THE FIRST WITH ARMS STRETCHING
SWEDISH MOVEMENTS FOR REDUCING STOMACH AND HIPS
(355)
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PHYSICAL CULTURE ^^1
Tt really is only a question of exercise, care and pa-
tience to get back again the old firmness, provided, of
course, one has not ill health to contend with.
When an athlete lets up on his exercise he gets
"soft," but he knows that a fortnight's training will put
him to rights again and make him as fit as ever.
The woman who wishes to do so can restore her
throat to its original firmness and roundness, but she can-
not accomplish this desirable end by merely thinking or
talking about it.
She must exercise, do work that no one can do for her.
The illustrations show exercises for developing and
restoring the throat.
They are so simple that any woman can understand
and practice them.
The first movement consists in allowing the head to
drop gently upon the breast, as far forward as it will
without straining.
Next raise the head and throw it as far back as possi-
ble. Then forward again, etc., until the movement has
been performed twenty times.
Next the head is turned as far to the side as possible,
the body remaining motionless, the head bent toward the
shoulder as low as it will reach without an actual strain
of the muscles and tendons. This movement should be
practiced also twenty times; the neck first turned to the
right and then to the left, ten times on each side.
The same movement, with the chin raised as high as
possible, repeated in the same fashion, first toward the
right, then the left.
358 ' HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
The illustration showing the expelling of the breath
when the subject slowly chants the word "blow" explains
pictorially an excellent and very simple breathing exer-
cise.
The subject first takes a deep, long breath, inflating
the lungs fully.
Then she expels the breath slowly, pronouncing the
word '' blo-o-o-ow " as she does so.
This exercise should be repeated twenty times also.
The dumb-bell exercises illustrated in an earlier por-
tion of this chapter are excellent for developing the
shoulders, bust and neck.
Grace and Health Gained by Running
"The American girl can be saved by proper physical
training from becoming the American woman with nerves,"
said Mr. William Blaikie, author of "How to Get Strong,
and How to Stay so."
"This physical training should begin during the earlier
years of childhood. Take a girl at her fifth birthday, and
teach her to run slowly, with erect carriage, as far as
she can with comfort every secular day until she reaches
her majority. Suppose by fifteen she ran as far as she
could with comfort in ten minutes, would it trouble her
much at eighteen, or at twenty-one to run a mile at a
good pace, too?
"Is it not likely that even several miles under favor-
ing circumstances for instance, in a hare and hounds
game, would disturb her? Had she been taught to run
PHYSICAL CULTURE 359
properly, never touching her heels to the ground and
spring lightly from her toes and sole, to hold her arms
practically motionless, her chest high, as near her chin
as she could get it, and keep it there — do you think
that the muscles she used in running through all these
years, would be weak ? Would she have half-developed
lungs, or well-developed ones ? Would the muscles which
held her body erect, be easily up to their work, and would
it not be natural for her to be erect?
" Looking at a girl so trained," continued Mr. Blaikie,
*' do we recall Emerson's saying, that ' m all human
action, those faculties will be strong which are used' ?
She has been intelligently using certain parts of her body
and limbs for many years; not violently, not overdoing
them, but rationally. This built them up and made them
strong, precisely as it did for her brother who ran with
her in all those daily stretches. Her most important mus-
cle, her heart, thus also trained to strong, steady, sensible
but never violent exercise, gained steadily in quality,
strength and endurance. In short, she has an educated
heart, educated lungs, educated limbs.
"And it has brought her many other good things,
sunny, buoyant, radiant health, a feeling of equality to
every demand — a magnetism, a personal charm that none
but the really healthy have or know. Bright eyes, blooming
complexion, a brain fed with healthy blood — not the sickly
nor well-nigh worthless article — make her better fitted for
all the mental work she may be called upon to do."
CHAPTER XLI
PHYSICAL CULTURE — Concluded
Leap in with me and swim to yo ider point.. — Julius Caesar.
KNOWLEDGE of how the body can be sustained
in the water may mean the saving of a life
to the girl or woman who seeks the pleas-
ures of ocean, lake or stream during the
summer outing. The art of swimming de-
pends upon a few rules which may be easily
learned by any one with the exercise of pa-
tience and some courage.
It is possible to learn to swim without an instructor,
and the girl who posed for these pictures is an expert
swimmer who never had a teacher.
When learning to swim a place should be selected
where the slope is gradual from the water's edge, the
bottom smooth, hard and sandy, and free from bowlders.
Artificial aids, such as corks, air belts, cork jackets and
the like, should be avoided, as they raise some parts of
(360)
PHYSICAL CULTURE B61
the body too high above and allow other parts to sink too
far below the natural plane of flotation. It should be re-
membered that the more entirely the body i-s submerged
the more easily the head can be sustained above the
water. Confidence in the floating power of the body
should be acquired by the swimmer as soon as possible.
This is one of the hardest things for the beginner to be-
lieve, that the body will float in the water under certain
conditions. The easiest way to float is to lie on the back,
the arms easily resting by the sides. This attitude not
only facilitates respiration, but counterbalances the weight
of the lower limbs, which should be entirely submerged,
but just under the surface of the water.
No better start toward learning to swim can be made
than to wade out until the water comes high up on the
chest, then with a full indrawing of the breath, allow the
body to sink backward with the head toward the shore
until only the mouth and nose are above the water. The
arms and lower limbs should be disposed as described, and
if all effort be dispensed with, and the body quietly and
confidently submitted to the water, it will be lightly up-
borne. When in this position the breathing should be
easy and regular, and if the body be kept perfectly bal-
anced it will assert its buoyancy and the desired and nec-
essary confidence be soon acquired.
First Attempt at a Stroke
To attempt to propel the body through the water while
floating on the back will very soon follow the discovery
that it will float. This is a pleasant and very useful way
362 HARRIET HUBBARD A^ER
of swimming, and if confidence be retained the beginner
will have very little trouble. The first m,ovement is to
draw the legs up to the body at the same time spreading
them apart as far as possible. The legs should then be
extended by one firm movement and at the same time
brought close together. This motion sends the body for-
ward, and when the impetus imparted is nearly but not
quite expended, the legs are spread apart and brought
close to the body as before, and the previous movement
of extending and drawing them together is repeated.
When extending the legs the breath should be exhaled,
and inhaled when drawn up. If greater speed be desired
the hands can be used as sculls by carrying them out-
ward from the body and at the same time level with it,
palms down. Just as the legs are closed, the hands and
arms should be pulled strongly toward them.
Notwithstanding back swimming is the most easily
learned, breast swimming is the commonest and most
generally practiced. This is begun by gently sinking the
body forward in the water and extending the arms to
their full length forward, keeping the fingers closed and
the palms fiat. Turn the palms of both hands outward
and make a strong stroke to the right and left with each
arm. The hands should not be sunk deep under the
water, as this tends to raise the body. The object is to
keep the body as nearly horizontal as possible in the
water and to propel it straight forward without raising it.
As the arms are brought round in the semicircular
movement the lower limbs are stiffened and brought
firmly together. The arm movements should not be more
PHYSICAL CULTURE 363
rapid than those of the legs^ as the latter are the main
propellers. Unison in movement and regularity of stroke
are indispensable to best results. If all hurry and excite-
ment be avoided and each stroke and kick be accomplished
precisely and completely, swimming may not only be made
useful and invigorating, but the swimmer may appear very
graceful in the water
How TO Tread Water
The act of treading water is very naturally performed.
The movements necessary are almost identical with the
movements required in walking. In case of accidental im-
mersion when the body is fully clothed, a knowledge of
the art of treading water will preserve life for a long
time. The body assumes a perpendicular position when
cast into deep water owing to the buoyancy of the lungs.
When the water comes up over the mouth and nose the
inclination of any one unable to swim is to throw the
hands up out of the water. All such effort serves but
to increase the danger. When thrown into deep water
one should be perfectly inactive for a short time. The
head will very soon rise above the surface, and at that
moment the hands and feet should be employed in nearly
the same manner as in walking ; the hands beating the
water at the sides and the feet climbing imaginary stairs.
The hands should never be raised above the surface of the
water, and the head should be bent back so as to submerge
the shoulders, neck and as much of the head as will not
interfere with breathing.
A.— 19
364 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
The overhead stroke is the style known to all boys
as dog-fashion. Its practice is not advisable because it
propels the body slowly and its rapid movements soon ex-
haust the sw^immer.
How TO Float
The art of floating is more easily acquired than that
of swimming, and if it be learned first it is an aid in giv-
ing confidence.
It is best, I think, to learn to float in shallow water,
or moderately shallow water. If the subject be timid some
one should stand beside her and for the first few trials
should place the hand firmly under the base of the be-
ginner's spine in such a w^ay as to afford physical as well
as moral encouragement.
Diving is a wonderful accomplishment, but it should
never be attempted by the amateur. It demands courage
and nerve, and no girl should try to dive until she is a
fearless swimmer, — even then it is best to learn to dive
from a comparatively slight elevation.
Bathing Costumes
There is an old-fashioned idea that bathing costumes
should be made of fiannel. I think this a mistake.
The most comfortable swimming dress I have ever worn
was made of black china silk ; serge, while always in
vogue, is heavier and does not cling less than the china
silk. Of course the dress must be so made as to impede
the limbs as little as possible. A skirt just to the knees,
PHYSICAL CULTURE 365
knickerbocker trousers, a loose bodice, free at the neck,
with short sleeves, — this is really an ideal bathing suit.
It is a very good plan for beginners to w^ear a leather
belt strong enough to bear the strain of lifting the body
if it should become necessary.
A reaction should follow^ the cold plunge, and no one
should remain in the v^ater w^ho feels chilly or shivers.
There can be no pleasure in bathing in the ocean
while one is chattering with cold, and there is very great
danger in remaining in the water when such a condition
exists.
Occasionally a sea bath will give one a headache, in
which case the person should leave the water immedi-
ately. The same is true in case of an attack of giddiness
or coldness of the extremities. The practice of taking a
stimulant before or after the bath is a very bad and un-
wholesome one. Women in a normal state of health do
not require a stimulant either before or after a sea or
fresh-water bath.
It is best to be provided with a bathing gown or wrap
which one can fold about one's self both for warmth and
protection from the sands to the bath house.
Cramps and Vertigo
At the slightest symptom of a cramp, which is easily
recognized without a description, call to some one to aid
you in leaving the water if you are unable to propel
yourself, or if for any reason you think you may not be
able to reach the shore witl^Qut ^^ssistance, A cramp is a
366 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
very nasty species of torment. Friction alone seems to
be useful in such cases. A vigorous rubbing will usually
relieve the pain and distress, but the subject should not
return to the water the same day.
Occasionally a first-rate swimmer will be seized by an
attack of vertigo on leaving the water, and frequently
ambitious beginners overtax themselves in their efforts to
learn to swim or to buffet the weaves and are attacked
with sudden faintness. A few drops of aromatic spirits
of ammonia in a little fresh water will relieve these con-
ditions almost immediately.
How TO Rescue the Drowning
Accidents will happen sometimes even in the midst of
a delightful summer vacation.
Perhaps you are an athletic girl and a strong swim-
mer. Perhaps it may devolve upon you to save some
less skillful comrade from drowning. Possibly, if that
opportunity came you would be absolutely helpless be-
cause of your lack of knowledge upon the art of life-
saving.
It will do no harm anyway to be prepared in case of
such an accident.
Do not wait for the drowning person to come to the
surface before you attempt a rescue, for it is quite likely
that he will not rise at all. Act immediately. Watch
for air bubbles on the surface of the water and plunge in
about where your judgment tells you the drowning man
has gone down. Great caution must be exercised, for if
PHYSICAL CULTURE 367
you are clutched too effectually your work of rescue may
have a most disastrous ending. Approach the drowning
man from the back, hold his arms to prevent struggling,
lift his head just above the water and with vigorous, even
leg strokes swim for shore.
It is important to remember that in swimming with
a person through the water his elbows should be kept
'away from his sides. This expands the lungs and adds
to his buoyancy.
If you are grasped by the drowning man radical meas-
ures must be resorted to. If clutched about the neck lean
over him, place your left hand on the small of his back,
seize his nostrils with your right fingers and press him
away from you. He must open his mouth to breathe and
during the choking which will ensue you can get complete
control.
If clutched about the body place your left hand on his
shoulder and bring the right knee against his chest, push
with all your might and you will be released.
Lay the subject flat on his back with a support under
the shoulders and loosen all clothing. Roll him over un-
til he is face downward, his head resting on one arm.
Thoroughly cleanse the throat and nostrils of all matter
which may obstruct the air passages, and return him to
the first position. Draw the tongue forward, fastening with
a handkerchief to prevent its falling back into the throat.
Proceed to the work of artificial respiration. Grasp
his arms below the elbows and draw them upward and
outward above the head. Hold them here for a second
or two, then carry them back and press them firmly to
368
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
the sides and front of chest. Repeat these operations
about fifteen times a minute, until natural respiration is
established.
To promote warmth and circulation is the next care.
Rub the person well all over the body, especially in the
direction of the heart, so that the blood will flow naturally
in that direction.
THIS POSITION RETARDS THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD
THIS POSITION INVITES NIGHTMARE
(370)
CORRECT SLEEPING POSITION
([lLl!)Er\I
CHAPTER XLII
HOW TO SLEEP
Sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eje. — Shakespeare.
s SLEEPING is one of the most important func-
tions of life, it is necessary to know how to
prepare for it, and how, if possible, to main-
tain a healthful and comfortable position
during the hours of repose.
Altogether too little time is given to rest.
The majority of people are workers. They toil irom six
to ten hours daily, and are not content to make their play-
time short. Instead of eight hours sleep, recommended
by the laws of health, they seldom get more than five or
six. This of course quickly destroys both health and
vigor, especially of women. Somehow, lack of sleep affects
a woman's looks more quickly than a man's.
Sleeping rooms, too, are often unsuited for the purpose
to which they are put. There are any number of girls
(371)
372 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
and women who, having but one room to themselves, are
anxious to make that room do duty for several. They
convert a couch into a bed. They surround it with dra-
peries that soon become dust laden, and they pile it with
silk and cretonne-covered cushions, which are used daily
but seldom cleaned. All this they prefer to a clean white
bed. The walls of this room are hung with innumerable
gewgaws, which they suppose are artistic, but which only
succeed in being unhygienic. If one hope for the best
health, she must make some sacrifices; and after all, it
pays in the end.
The Japanese would never think of sleeping in a fur-
nished room. In their sleeping apartments there is nothing
more than a roll of matting which constitutes a bed.
Americans would do well to follow the hardy little Ori-
ental in this respect.
The most hygienic night robe is a cotton one. If
possible, wear it also in winter in preference to a heavy
flannel one. Never tuck it under the pillow during the
day. It should be first thoroughly aired, then hung in
the closet.
The best way to arrange one's hair in the night, is to
plait it. It should be braided loosely to prevent the hairs
from breaking, and in one braid.
Beds should not be soft and downy, and girls and women
must not, as a certain physician says they are apt to do,
surround themselves with a great many pillows. This is
enervating, prevents ventilation, hinders circulation and
renders the flesh flabby. A hard bed is best for making
firm flesh.
HOW TO SLEEP 373
To sleep prone upon the back, as shown in the illustra-
tion, is unhygienic. With the figure propped up with
many pillows and the knees raised, it is impossible to ob-
tain beneficial sleep. This position sends the blood to the
brain, and induces nightmare and bad dreams. It causes
the mouth to drop open, thus making nasal breathing im-
possible.
Sleeping on the stomach is also unhealthful. It hinders
digestion and circulation, and renders breathing difficult.
By the pictures it will be observed that in both incor-
rect positions, the arms of the sleeper are thrown over her
head. This is what particularly impairs the circulation.
Sleeping on the right side stretches the muscles about
the heart, and increases any trouble one may have with
that organ.
An eminent physician says that the correct way to
sleep is on the left side with the arm thrown behind. Ani-
mals sleep as nearly upon the chest as possible and they
adopt the best methods usually, in these matters. As
shown in the picture, this brings the body nearly, but not
quite over the chest. This is the best position for pro-
moting health and a fine figure.
That the brain may receive more perfect rest, the room
should always be darkened, daring the hours of slumber.
For those who are bad sleepers this precaution should
especially be taken.
CHAPTER XLIII
BEAUTY AND HEALTH FOR THE BUSINESS
WOMAN
Because their "business still lies out o' door. — Comedy of Errors.
>HE business woman's good looks are as impor-
tant and essential to her success as beauty and
wealth to a society woman. We may dodge
the issue for a time, and we may prate about
brains and capacity and all that, but when the
opportunity offers for a place, other things
being equal, the best looking of the business
women applicants will get the position every time.
It is scarcely necessary to say that a woman in busi-
ness should dress with some severity. Laces and furbe-
lows are out of place in an oflBce intended for work.
Business women meet men on a business footing only,
during office hours. A man arrayed in evening clothes,
with white kid gloves upon his hands at his office early
in the morning, would not be more unbecomingly or
(374)
BEAUTY AND HEALTH 375
absurdly dressed than a woman is with her flounces, laces
and jewelry.
Shirt waists, plain linen collars and ties, tailor-made
skirts and blazers, are the acceptable and proper make-up
of the business woman's working costume.
The woman who dresses plainly will have more time
and money, also, to care for her actual self, both physic-
ally and mentally. The business woman of moderate
salary cannot indulge in massage, or even visit a mani-
cure. She can, however, do much by exquisite personal
neatness and a nourishing diet, to ward off the ravages of
time and care.
First of all she should cultivate a contented spirit.
Recollect that nothing so soon fixes disagreeable lines
upon the face as habits of scowling, or facial contortions
of any description.
Keep your soul above the petty trials of life. Look
up, my dear friends, and forward. Above the roughness
of the earth you will always find a bit of blue some-
where in the firmament, and if you watch patiently you
will find a little star of hope trying hard to send you a
loving little twinkle of encouragement out of the blackest
night.
Don't waste your strength in losing your temper over
small things. We have just so much vital force, each
one of us. If we waste it over trifles (and a lot of
strength escapes in each angry word) we will not have it
for our work or our diversion.
The business woman of necessity makes but the one toilet
for the day. She should, on rising, take a full sponge bath,
B76 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
carefully washing her face with hot water and soap if she
has used a cream or lotion before going to bed — in clear,
tepid water otherwise. Every particle of soap must be
washed out and finally the face rinsed in clear, cold water.
Where a woman is strong enough I heartily advocate the
cold plunge. Draw the water the night before and there
will be no shock, and the stimulant of a cold morning
bath gives tone to the system and stands by one like
a tonic whose influence is felt all day. A little Lait Vir-
ginal in the plunge or the rinsing water for the sponge
bath is also refreshing and invigorating. Five minutes'
exercise with a pair of light, wooden dumb-bells will mean
an appetite for breakfast and will cure any disposition to
morning headache.
The teeth should be brushed twice before leaving home
for the day; once on rising and again after breakfast,
which should be a substantial meal with a cup of good
English breakfast tea instead of the complexion-destroyer,
coffee.
Brush the teeth always up and down. I suggest a sim-
ple antiseptic dentifrice easily made at home for the first
brushing, and a very delicious tooth wash for the second.
Pass a bit of dental silk between the teeth to remove
every stray particle of food. A business woman's whole
future may be made or marred by the appearance of her
mouth when she opens it to speak or smile.
The business woman should take at least an hour for
her night toilet which positively requires a full hot bath
with a brush scrub from head to foot, ten minutes at
least for brushing and braiding the hair, and a careful
BEAUTY AND HEALTH 377
examination of the skin. If the cuticle be inclined to be
rough a good cream should be gently rubbed into it ; if
the wrinkles are crowding themselves into prominence
they must be kneaded and smoothed and coaxed away; if
there be an ominous little patch of brown just above one
cheek or a queer discoloration resembling the tiny prints
of a little brown hand across the tired brow, there is
no time to lose in applying a lotion which will turn these
intruders pale and banish them after a little ; if there
be other blemishes they should be taken account of now,
The gown should be brushed, collar and cuffs laid out
and everything put in readiness for there will be no time
in the morning ; and far from least important of all rule&
for the business woman to rigorously adhere to is a well-
ventilated chamber and a scrupulously clean, comfortable
bed to sleep in. Every working woman that can possible
do so, even though it costs her a denial of luxury, owes
herself a sleeping room quite apart, where she can each
night rest mind and body, and undisturbed for ten long,
sweet hours refresh her exhausted forces through that
deep well-earned sleep that is the Heaven-sent reward of
honest toil, the sleep that does indeed " knit up the raveled
sleeve of care."
TOOTH POWDER
Precipitated chalk 4 ounces.
Pulverized borax 2 ounces.
Powdered myrrh 1 ounce.
Pulverized orris 1 ounce.
Mix and sift through fine bolting cloth.
378
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
VIOLET DENTIFRICE OR MOUTH WASH
Tincture orris 1 ounce.
Essence white rose 1 ounce.
Alcohol 1 ounce-,
Peppermint 20 drops.
Mix. Pour a few drops into a little water and rinse the mouth
thoroughly.
CHAPTER XLIV
MOTHER AND CHILD
A mother is a mother still
The holiest thing alive.
— Coleridge.
Y CHILD has a right to be born well and strong
mentally and physically.
This should be the constant thought of
every pregnant woman.
To bear children is the holiest mission of
our sex.
To bring beautiful, noble sons and daugh-
ters into the world we must live beautiful and noble lives
ourselves, for it is as true of men and women as of plants
and trees, "By their fruits ye shall know them."
To the woman who has a good constitution and has
learned how to take care of her own mental and physical
health, maternity has no terrors ; on the contrary, she
looks forward with pride and joy to the advent of the
babe, beloved from its conception.
(379)
380 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Such a woman, when she learns that she is to bring an
immortal soul into the world, will consecrate herself anew
to all that is highest and best within her reach, and will
observe morally and physically such a high standard of
mental and physical health that her power of resisting all
bodily ailments, as well as those of a mental order, will
be immensely increased and will be imparted to her child.
The first thing to be done for a newborn baby, when
it has left the physician's or midwife's hands, is to give it
a bath.
• The baby's first bath differs from the succeeding ablu-
tions for this reason: —
Newborn babies are more or less covered with a thick,
white wax-like material that is easier removed by an emol-
lient than by soap and water.
Therefore the little one's first toilet should consist of
an oil bath, olive oil may be used, or vaseline is equally
effective.
Apply the oil or vaseline with a bit of old flannel, keep-
ing the baby well covered during the process.
Recollect that an infant is very sensitive to cold.
The Vernix Caseosa, which is the technical name for
the white substance, will yield to the unguent, and the
baby, when entirely clean, may be very gently rubbed all
over with a bit of old, soft linen to remove any superflu-
ous oil.
The navel is best dressed with antiseptic absorbent
cotton in this fashion : —
Take a bit of cotton about three inches square and
place it on the left side of the abdomen just above the
WRONG WAY TO PUT A BABY IN A TUB
RIGHT WAY TO PUT A BABY IN A TUB
(381)
(382)
SEW THE BABY'S CLOTHES ON
MOTHER AND CHILD 383
navel. Lay the remnant of the navel cord upon it v^ith
its cut end pointing upward and to the left.
Arrange it so that the absorbent cotton comes under
the base of the cord, and put another bit of cotton the
same size over the cord.
Keep the whole in place by a soft flannel bellyband.
Flannel bands are better than linen because they main-
tain an equal temperature, absorb the secretions and emit
less of the disagreeable odor which accompanies the dress-
ing of the navel.
The cord also comes off sooner, frequently as early as
the fourth day.
After the cord separates dress the navel with a little
vaseline, apply more cotton and a fresh band.
If the navel should form a sort of pouch and protrude
do not be alarmed.
Cut a thin slice of cork two inches in diameter, or
even a piece of pasteboard if you have no cork conven-
ient.
Wrap it with several thicknesses of old linen or band-
age, lay it over the protruding navel and keep it in place
with the flannel band.
Newborn babies require only very simple clothing.
Don't weigh the little stranger down with furbelows
and frills.
Knitted silk and wool shirts, barrow coats or foot blan-
kets, flannel skirts, plenty of napkins and slips, and a soft,
light cloak and cap are all the little one requires be he
the child of wealth or humble means, for the first few
months.
A.— 20
384 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Fortunately the long, useless dresses and petticoats
that formerly were such a burden to mother as well as
a hindrance and discomfort to the baby have been aban-
doned.
I hope it is a long good-bye as well to the low necks
and short sleeves that in our mothers' days were fashion-
able and left the poor little baby with its shoulders and
arms as bare as a modish mother at the end of the cen-
tury in her opera box.
Food
Newborn babies need no artificial food.
Nature provides for the baby and it needs nothing
but the laxative secretion which the mother's breast will
yield at the first invitation from the precious little
mouth.
Nurses frequently insist upon feeding a newborn baby,
but it is a mistake to do so, for when the delivery is nat-
ural and the mother doing well the baby will get its
proper nourishment from the breast.
If for any cause the mother fail to be able to nurse
the babe a wet nurse is the best substitute.
The choice of a wet nurse is a serious matter.
The woman who is to enjoy the privilege of nourish-
ing your child should be young, healthy, of good repute
and habits, and cleanly.
She should be willing to submit to a thorough ex-
amination by a good physician and also by a dentist.
It is an outrage to put a poor little defenseless child
into the arms of a woman with a foul breath and a
MOTHER AND CHILD
385
crime to permit it to be nourished by a foster mother
whose habits are not chaste and self-respecting.
The best artificial milk seems to be cream reduced
and sweetened with sugar and milk.
No exact rule can be given for this reduction, most
mothers leave it too rich and the child's stomach is soon
out of order in consequence.
General Rules for Feeding
Age
First week
1 to 6 weeks
6 to 12 weeks and possibly
to 5th or 6th month
At 6 months
At 10 months
Intervals of
Feeding
2 hours
2% hours
3 hours
3 hours
3 hours
Average Amount at
Each Feeding
1 ounce
1% to 2 ounces
3 to 4 ounces
6 ounces
8 ounces
Average Amount
IN 24 Hours
10 ounces
12 to 16 ouncfes
18 to 24 ounces
36 ounces
40 ounces
The best plan is to let new milk stand from five to
six hours.
Take off from the top ; this is what is meant by the
''top milk.'' Dilute the top milk one half with hot water,
which should be filtered ; to each pint add one teaspoonful
of sugar of milk, and one grain of phosphate of lime.
Microscopical examination has proved that many of the
infant's prepared foods contain too much starch and too
little gluten to make them fit for babies, for children have
not enough saliva to convert starch into sugar.
The celebrated Dr. Playfair declares that the mor-
tality following artificial feeding in babies may usually
be traced to unsuitable food, especially among the poorer
380 - HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
classes who imagine that milk alone is insufficient, and
resort to arrowroot or cornstarch which do not digest
and create intestinal derangements.
Barley, on the contrary, contains phosphates which are
necessary to digestion, and the addition of barley water
may early be made.
The following schedule of diet is an excellent one for
babies brought up by hand: —
Diet for Babies Brought up by Hand
first week
Cream 2 teaspoonfuls.
Whey 3 teaspoonfuls.
Water (hot) .... 3 teaspoonfuls.
Milk sugar . . . . ^ teaspoonful.
For each feeding ; to be given every two hours from 5 a.m. to
11 P.M., and in some cases once or twice a night; amounting to twelve
fluid ounces of food per diem.
FROM SECOND TO SIXTH WEEK
Milk 1 tablespoonful.
Cream 2 teaspoonfuls.
Milk sugar . . . . ^ teaspoonful.
Water 2 tablespoonfuls.
For one portion; to be given every two hours from 5 A. M. to 11
P.M.; amounting to seventeen fluid ounces of food per diem.
FROM SIXTH WEEK TO END OF SECOND MONTH
Milk 2^ tablespoonfuls.
Cream 1 tablespoonful.
Milk sugar J teaspoonful.
Water 2^ tablespoonfuls.
For each feeding ; to be given every two hours ; amounting to
thirty fluid ounces per diem.
MOTHER AND CHILD 387
FROM BEGINNING OF THIRD MONTH TO SIXTH MONTH
Milk 5 tablespoonfuls,
Cream 1 tablespoonful,
Milk sugar 1 teaspoonful.
Water 2 tablespoonfuls,
For each feeding ; to be giv^n every two and a half hours, or
thirty-two fluid ounces per diem.
DURING SIXTH MONTH
Six meals daily, from 6 a. m. to 9 p. m. Morning and midday
bottles, each : —
Milk 9 tablespoonfuls.
Cream 1 tablespoonful.
Mellin's Food .... 1 teaspoonful.
Hot water 2 tablespoonfuls.
Dissolve the Mellin's Food in hot water and stir into the pre-
viously mixed milk and cream.
Other bottles, each: —
Milk 9 tablespoonfuls.
Cream 1 tablespoonful.
Milk sugar 1 teaspoonful.
Water 2 tablespoonfuls.
This will all equal thirty-six fluid ounces of food in a day.
During the seventh month increase the supply of Mellin's Food
to two teaspoonfuls, and give three times daily.
During eighth and ninth months give five meals daily. The
first meal, at 7 a. m. should consist of : —
Milk 13 tablespoonfuls.
Cream 1 tablespoonful.
Milk sugar 1 teaspoonful.
Water 2 tablespoonfuls.
Second meal at 10 : 30 a. m., should consist of milk, cream and
water in the same proportion, with one tablespoonful of Mellin's Food.
388 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Third meal at 2 p. m., same as second.
Fourth meal at 6 p. ,m., same as second.
Fifth meal at 10 p. m., same as first.
This gives forty fluid ounces of food per diem.
TENTH AND ELEVENTH MONTHS
First meal at 7 a. m., to consist of: —
Milk .17 tablespoonfuls.
Cream ...... 1 tablespoonful.
Mellin's Food ... 1 tablespoonful.
Water 2 tablespoonfuls.
Second meal at 10 : 30 a. m. should consist of a breakfast-cupful of
warm milk.
Third meal at 2 p. m. should consist of the yolk of an egg lightly
boiled, with stale bread crumbs.
Fourth meal at 6 P. m., same as first.
Fifth meal at 10 P. m., same as second.
On alternate days the third meal may consist of a teacupful of
beef tea containing a few stale bread crumbs. Or mutton, chicken or
veal broth may be used to vary with the beef tea.
* i C ILBERT S •?•
CHAPTER XLV
MOTHER AND CHILD — Concluded
We are governed with our mother's spirits. — Julius Caesar.
BABY should be weaned at the end of the
first year unless it is very ill from tooth
catting or the time occurs during very hot
weather, when it is better to defer weaning
until the teeth have come or the weather
is cooler.
Milk as it exists in the udder of a
healthy cow is free from any poisonous or dangerous
substance but during milking and subsequent handling it
acquires particles of manure and dirt which may set up
a fermentation or other injurious change.
Sterilization destroys the activity and possibility for
harm of these organic impurities.
In order to sterilize the milk it is necessary to submit
it to an intense heat under pressure. Very simple imple-
(389)
390 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
ments may be had at a small cost by the aid of which
mothers who are away from cities and towns where ster-
ilized milk is so easily procured nowadays can superin-
tend the process perfectly and at present the nursery
sterilizer happily bids fair to be as common in households
where there are little children, as the sewing machine or
clothes wringer.
The best sterilizer of simple apparatus is Arnold's.
Bathing and Dressing the Baby
Bathing the baby has always been a source of much
interest in most households. Scarcely any other rite con-
nected with His Majesty is as much enjoyed and appreci-
ated as his bath. And perhaps there is one mother in
ten who knows how to give the bath properly. Of course
the bath is a daily performance.
She who has studied carefully this morning ceremony,
before the bath begins, gathers all the articles which will
be needed — a low table — on which the small tub reposes ;
pure hygienic soap, two wash cloths, needle, linen thread,
scissors, vaseline, clean clothing, small thermometer, etc.
The temperature of the room must register about 70
degrees, Fahr., and the bath should be always at 98 degrees.
These are two things which she is particularly careful to
observe.
Baby is disrobed and placed in the nurse's or mother's
lap on a warm flannel apron which she wears. He must
be covered well with part of the flannel to prevent expo-
sure^ while mamma lathers his little body thoroughly with
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A PAIR OF OUTSTANDING EARS AND A PUG NOSE
A LITTLE PUG NOSE IS VERY MUCH LIKE WAX OR PUTTY; YOU CAN GENTLY PRESS A PUG
INTO A PRETTY LITTLE GREEK
A BABY'S OUTSTANDING EARS AND A PUG NOSE
(392)
MOTHER AND CHILD 393
a dripping, soapy cloth. After he is well soaped he is
plunged up to his neck in a tub of clean, warm water,
another cloth is substituted for the soapy one, and a good
rinsing is given him. Before the water has had time to
become chilled the baby is lifted out of the tub and
wrapped from crown to toe in a warm flannel blanket
which has a soft linen towel for its lining. Then he is
gently patted (not rubbed) until every vestige of moisture
disappears.
Great care must be devoted to dressing baby. He must
wear the plainest clothing, and its thickness must be
evenly distributed, so that no part of his body will be-
come overheated. Even the charming, little, silk bootees
are tabooed by the wise mother and long, woolen stock-
ings substituted, or baby revels in barefooted freedom.
The old-fashioned method of pinning a young child's
clothes, or even fastening them with tapes, has been aban-
doned, and the trained nursemaid now sews baby into his
garments. Pins make cruel indentions on the delicate
skin, and tapes are apt to become hard and knotted.
It is important to know just how to carry a baby.
Improper handling may result in lifelong invalidism for
the child. It would seem in these enlightened days that
ignorance is a poor excuse for unwise treatment of babies,
yet it is quite common to see a young matron carrying or
allowing her baby to be carried in a manner which causes
pain to the average on-looker.
Never, when carrying a child, or at any other time,
allow it to bear the weight of its own head. The head
must be supported, for it is liable to fall over with a jerk
394 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
and dislocate the neck. The head and shoulder blades
should be supported with one hand, while the other grasps
the child's feet, or end of his clothing. This forms a per-
fect hammock and allows no undue pressure on the deli-
cate organs of his body. Never grasp a baby about the
waist, as the pressure, no matter how slight, is harmful.
It is considered unwise to rock a child to sleep. He is
placed in his little, white, iron crib, roomy and ■ firm, a
mosquito netting keeps away the flies, and he is left to
fall asleep. The old-fashioned cradle, with its narrow,
wooden walls and soft mattresses of unhygienic feathers,
is a great contrast to the woven wire crib of to-day, and
certainly the crib is an improvement.
A great doctor once remarked that bad ventilation de-
forms more children and destroys more health than acci-
dent or plague. Baby should never be put to sleep in
bed or perambulator with the head under the bed clothing,
to inhale the air already breathed and further contami-
nated by exhalations from the skin. As well give the
little one to drink the water first used for a bath.
Powder no longer has a place in the baby's toilet. It
dries and cuts the delicate skin and is actually a torture
when applied to the chapped places, whereas vaseline or
cold cream are healing and nourish the cuticle. I made
the discovery when caring for my first baby that the more
powder I put upon her tender little body the redder and
sorer the chafed spots were when the powder was washed
away, so I tried something I thought would be healing.
It happened to be vaseline, and proved entirely successful.
I never allowed powder to be used with my other children.
MOTHER AND CHILD 395
In dressing an infant great care should be taken not
to lift or twist his little body. It should be rolled from
side to side as need be, when putting on the garments,
but never lifted or turned.
Although the dietary suggested for babies brought
up by hand has been greatly improved of late years by
the various systems for securing pure milk and foods con-
taining the proper amount of gluten, it is many times not
the easiest thing in the world to find which one of these
best suits the idiosyncracies of your baby's stomach. For
this reason the "bottle-fed" baby may not gain as rapidly
as the one that is nursed for the first two or three months.
After that the gain should be quite as regular. By the
time the " bottle-fed " baby is a year old he has a decided
advantage of his nursing friend, that about this time
the entire household is busy weaning. ''Bottle-fed" baby
is tucked down in his crib with his favorite, nice, warm
tipple on the pillow beside him, quietly laughing in his
sleeve at the baby that has to go through the process of
being weaned.
It is claimed, and justly, too, that the old-time tube
nursing bottle is responsible for the deaths of thousands
of infants. No matter how careful one may be, these
tubes and arrangements cannot be kept perfectly sweet
and pure. The model nursing bottle has a plain, well-
fitting nipple with a very small hole. It is better to buy
them without holes and puncture with a fine needle,
heated. If the bottle be held so that the neck is always
full of milk, air cannot be sucked into the stomach.
396 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
BABY'S Accomplishments
At four months baby should hold up his head ; at
five months he should have doubled his weight; at seven
months he should sit alone ; at between nine and ten
months old he should bear his weight on his feet, and
at twelve months give you a proud little grin when you
let go his hands, hold one finger up to him and say :
"Now, all alone." When he is fourteen or fifteen months
old he will walk all over the room and keep you busy
seeing that he does not take a ''header" out of bed or
down stairs. But never urge your baby to walk. He will
do it of his own accord as soon as his bones and muscles
are strong enough.
Let baby sleep in his little carriage out of doors if he
wants to. It is not true that a child takes cold more
easily when asleep ; on the contrary, he will grow stronger
and be less liable to take cold.
In the summer and early autumn baby may be out of
doors almost any time between seven o'clock in the
morning and sunset. In the winter, modified somewhat by
climate, only between ten and eleven o'clock in the morn-
ing and between two and three o'clock in the afternoon.
See that the wind does not blow directly in his face, that
his feet are properly covered and warm and discharge the
nursery maid on the spot who lets the sun shine down
into your baby's eyes, whether he is asleep or awake.
That babies and little children are troubled with weak
eyes is a great source of uneasiness to young mothers.
Frequently the fault is their own. A white parasol may
be pretty, but its effect on the baby's eyes is alarming.
MOTHER AND CHILD 397
In choosing a parasol cover be careful that whatever color
the outside may be, the inside must be dark — preferably
green. If baby is not made the victim of a white cover
it is probable that his eyes will not trouble him.
; A BABY'S Weight and Measurements
Nothing tells so accurately how the baby is thriving
as its gain in weight from week to week. Scientific
men have given such thorough study to the "bottle-fed"
baby that this tiny development of our modern civiliza-
tion now stands almost as good a chance as his " mother's
milk" competitor in the matter of adding a desirable num-
ber of ounces from week to week to his weight.
At birth the average boy baby weighs 7^ pounds ; is 20^
inches high ; chest 13^ inches ; head 14 inches. Girls
weigh about a pound less. They are about the same
height. At one year a baby should weigh about twenty
and a half pounds, at two, twenty-six and a half, at three,
thirty-one, at four, thirty-five, at five, forty-one.
During the first six months weigh your baby (with-
out clothes) every week. During the next six months, at
least every two weeks. At first baby will probably lose
from four to eight ounces, after which he should steadily
gain from four to eight ounces a week up to the time he
is six months old. Now baby will begin the troublesome
job of cutting his teeth, which will cut his gaining in two
in the middle. But in spite of teeth he should take on
from two to four ounces of weight each week. If he
does not do this there is something wrong with his food,
his airings or bathings.
398 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
BABY'S Good Looks
We are all of us prone to discourse on the beauties
of childhood, and truly there is nothing more charming
than the features of lovely infancy.
We recall instantly the little child with eyes so gen-
tle, so fearless and affectionate, and that reflect our every
emotion. We smile at the dimpled faces, the chubby lit-
tle forms of the babies whom we know, but occasionally
we see a little child who is a positive distortion of in-
fancy, and perhaps we wonder only that babyhood can
be so unattractive.
I happen to know a little child may be physically
trained into great beauty, even with the most meager
equipment, and every time I see a little tot with hideously
outstanding ears, I long to reach its mother and beg her
to make sightly features of these almost monstrous and
unnecessary deformities.
There is no sense in permitting a child to grow up
with aural appenda looking like oyster shells rudely at-
tached to the sides of the head.
Nothing destroys the symmetry of the head as these
outstanding and distorted ears.
No girl can grow up to be a beautiful maiden, no boy
can ever be at his best, whose ears are literally de-
formities.
Beginning with the day of its birth a baby's ears
should receive attention. If the nurse understand her
profession, she will take care always to see that the
little ear is folded back against the side of the head,
'■^IWt'X^
(400)
A PERFECTLY GROOMED BABY
MOTHER AND CHILD 401
when the infant reclines upon one side. When the baby
lies upon its back she will see that even the softest
pillow does not press the ear out from the side of the
head.
Such care as this will always result in a prettily
formed ear lying close to the head, as nature intended.
Where the child has been neglected in infancy it takes
more time, and it takes more skill to coax the ear into
the habit of lying close to the head.
For this purpose the skeleton earcap was devised
about fifteen years ago, and is in almost universal use in
England.
This little cap may be purchased for a trifle, or an
ingenious mother may make one of straps of linen tape
held together by bits of elastic tape which allows the
necessary flexibility.
It is conceded that a straight nose comes nearer to
the accepted standard of beauty than any other, and a
flat pug nose is certainly very ugly. If mothers and
nurses will but take heed, there need be no pug-nosed
children.
It is a curious fact, but one which will be corrobo-
rated by all who pay attention to the matter, that persons
with upturned noses invariably use their handkerchiefs
with an upward flourish, whenever they have occasion to
use them at all, and that those with turned down noses
cultivate the very opposite manner of handkerchief eti-
quette. Now nothing can be much uglier than the first
mentioned habit, also nothing so potent in helping the
pug to do its worst.
402 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Now the nose may be really modeled if the baby to
whom it belongs is caught early enough.
A baby's nose is very much like a bit of putty. It
has no bone, and it will respond to pressure, daily applied
of a very wise and knowing thumb and forefinger.
There is not a mother in the universe who cannot make
a nice, straight, little nose out of the most hopeless baby
pug if she will several times a day, by the means of the
thumb and forefinger, press the diminutive organ into the
shape it should have.
The baby whose picture has been used to illustrate
this article had the slimmest excuse for a nose I have
ever seen, but I produced on this unhappy infant's coun-
tenance in the course of two years, and that was longer
than it usually takes, a very respectable, nice, little nose.
Frequently I see a child with a one-sided, lumpy head,
and I know that I have before me a poor little creature
who has been robbed of his birthright, physical sym-
metry.
Many infants present themselves to a more or less
admiring family on the occasion of their first appearance,
with distressingly distorted and bumpy heads. There are
physical reasons for these eccentric looking little pates,
and Nature will assert her authority without other assist-
ance in most cases. Occasionally the little head fails to
acquire a proper roundness, and then the hands of the
mother or nurse should assist in smoothing away the
unnatural and disfiguring lumps.
Where the head is long and narrow and one-sided, a
gentle pressure of the hands with a movement from the
MOTHER AND CHILD 403
chin to the top of the head will often repair this distor-
tion in a few weeks' time.
The pressure should be firm, never hard, and never
painful to the infant.
The human countenance is of very flexible material and
little children who are allowed to make grimaces very
soon show the effect of facial lines that later on destroy
the harmony and beauty of the countenance.
One cannot begin too early to oppose and counteract
all such habits in children. (See also Chapter XXV.)
So far as the mouth is concerned the form of this feat-
ure depends greatly upon the care bestowed upon the teeth
in babyhood. It is never too soon to begin to take care
of a child's mouth, and it is well for mothers to under-
stand that a baby's teeth require brushing and rinsing^
and were never intended to be removed by decay.
A child should shed its first baby teeth at about the
eighth year, and if they have been properly cared for
these little teeth should drop out without a defective
speck on any of them.
If the early teeth are looked after they will serve
until the jaws are sufficiently grown and strong to pro-
duce teeth capable of doing service for a lifetime, and
these teeth will come in regular and beautiful, unless
there is some inherited defect either in the formation of
the jaw, or the failure of some of the chemical con-
stituents.
A.— 21
404 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
TREATMENT FOR SCALD HEAD
Wash the little head each night before bedtime with a pure
soap, rinse and dry it with a soft towel, then apply the pomade
made as follows : —
Resorcin 4 grains.
Lanolin 8 grains.
Vaseline 8 grains.
Let the ointment remain on all night, wash it away in the morn-
ing with pure soap and repeat the application of the unguent if neces-
sary. Usually it suffices to anoint the head all night only.
If the baby be troubled with what is called ^'prickly
heat," perhaps you dress him too warmly. Try loosen-
ing his clothing and also making it a trifle lighter. Dis-
solve a small teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda in his
bath. This is excellent. You might also bathe the affected
parts with diluted witch hazel, using a soft linen cloth or
velvet sponge.
CHAPTER XLVI
HOW TO READ CHARACTER FROM
THE FEATURES
Love first learned in a lady's eyes. — Love's Labor Lost
KNOW it is the custom of many unthinking persons
to jest at the assumption, so called, of the physiog-
nomist. I have a thousand and one times been
laughed to scorn when I have declared that a cer-
tain man or woman was not to be trusted because
he or she had deceitful eyes and a retreating chin,
and I have frequently heard the unbelievers de-
clare that such or such a horse was a wicked-looking
beast, or a good-tempered looking one.
No man alive who ever dealt in dogs but believes the
signs of ugliness in their muzzles will be carried out in
their behavior. If a brute — an unthinking, soulless brute
— will in his actions bear out the facial signs for ugliness
or good temper, why not a man or a woman?
(405)
406 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
When you judge a woman's or even a man's character
it is not fair to condemn or exalt the subject because one
feature is bad or another beautiful. The face as a whole
must be considered. For example, a receding forehead is
a facial sign for mental weakness, but a strong chin will
redeem the receding brow.
There are certain well-defined types of features that
infallibly stand for well-recognized characteristics. When
a man selects a wife he always, unless the matter be
purely one of finance, is under the impression that she
has a good face.
The face of a good woman need not be always the
face of a beauty. It must, however, have one or two of
the strong signs of integrity and loyalty.
The Mouth
First of all, beware of the rosebud mouth ; the mouth
that is so tiny; the mouth that is formed after the good
old patterns of the ancients, who gave their Yenuses the
mouths that were of the rosebud order, and fit only for
the fickle devotees of an inconstant goddess. Women with
rosebud mouths are usually vain, frivolous and untruthful.
On the other hand, the larger mouth, with full, well-
proportioned lips, which when closed form almost a hori-
zontal line with the corners, neither elevated nor de-
pressed, is the indication of truthfulness, loyalty, firmness
and justice. This is the mouth for a man to tie to.
The conceited mouth has a short upper lip. When you
see such a mouth you may make up your mind that the
MARY ANDERSON NAVARRO'S LITTLE SON
(4(J7)
HOW TO READ CHARACTER 409
surest way to gain the good will of its possessor is to
flatter her.
The gossip's mouth is wide, with downward curves at
the corners. It is found on the faces of persons who tell
you disagreeable things about your common acquaintances,
as well as of your immediate family. Women .with gos-
siping lines will neglect every duty in life for the sake of
setting out with a fresh budget of scandal.
The Teeth
A woman with fairly harmonious features and a double
set of perfect, regular and pearl-white teeth freely and
frankly displayed in laughing, is fairly certain to be a
creature of remarkable mental balance.
Such teeth accompany unusual endowments, the chief
drawback in the make-up of the subject, particularly if she
have the smiling habit, being a lack of firmness.
Women of tremendous resolution, concentration and
fixity of purpose have a habit of closing the lips and
showing very little of the teeth, even when they smile.
When you see a pretty girl with rather short, square
teeth which have wide spaces between them, set her down as
fickle, for these are the teeth of constitutional inconstancy.
Girls with long, narrow teeth are rarely strong phys-
ically. Consumptives who have inherited pulmonary
troubles almost always have these long, narrow, frail
teeth. When the upper teeth and jaw noticeably project
over the lower the indications are for a rather elementary
mind and an uncertain temper.
410 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Women with these teeth are not, properly speaking,
ill-tempered. They are generous and often fundamentally
good-natured, but once they are roused — well, it is wise
to give them the floor and to maintain a discreet silence.
Irregular teeth that look like tangled kernels of an
ear of corn are the index of a badly balanced nature.
When you see a girl whose teeth naturally curve from
the gum margin in toward the mouth you can wager
anything you like she is prudent about money matters.
Women with uneven teeth, those which project or
recede noticeably, are uneven in disposition also, and more
developed in the passions than intellectually. Of course
the form of the circle of the teeth must naturally repeat
the form of the jawbone, and the girl with a generous
mouth, which her family calls big, may console herself by
the knowledge that, according to face readers, a broad
mouth, full of white, even, normal-sized teeth, with jaws
that meet exactly or nearly so, surely betokens a mind
with a broad grasp and a generous, even temper, but
rather careless nature.
The girl with the happy-go-lucky teeth exemplifies this
type. She is the girl who gets taken in and imposed
upon right and left, but she smiles and forgives and never
learns that the world is hard and selfish, no matter how
long she lives.
The Chin
A woman's chin is also a telltale feature. People with
small, weak, receding chins rarely have much will power.
This type is also called treacherous. Its possessor would
'•^ooocoooo*
HOW TO READ CHARACTER 413
be deceitful and disloyal because she would not have the
strength of will to be anything else.
A round and rather full, well-formed chin denotes a
sweet, yielding temper.
A pointed, projecting chin betokens avarice. When
the subject has also a long, hooked nose you have two of
the characteristically facial signs of the miser. '
A square chin of good size, with an indentation in the
center, is the accompaniment of a firm, capable nature.
Its owner will not, perhaps, be quite so gentle as the girl
with the round chin, but other things being equal, she
will be more of a helpmeet.
The Nose
Personally I am much impressed by the indications of
the nose. For example, the nose of the conqueror, which
is the aquiline, is found upon the faces of most of the
great warriors. Napoleon had such a nose; so had Wel-
lington.
The Greek nose, which forms a straight line from base
to tip, is considered the perfect nose. It indicates a gen-
tle, peaceable nature, with a love of the beautiful — of the
arts and of home. The Greek nose does not belong to
the most forcible type of womanhood, but Greek-nosed
women rarely are quarrelsome, and with a good, moder-
ately large mouth, a Greek-nosed woman will usually prove
a treasure.
Alas for the snubs, for they are usually found upon
the faces of cruel women. I do not refer to the nez
414 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
retrousse, which is just tip-tilted enough to be saucy, but
to the real snub which is flattened upon the face.
Look out for the snub nose every time, but if you
happen to strike it in conjunction with a small rosebud
mouth, round nearsighted eyes and tiny shell-like ears,
flee for your life, for you have encountered the incarna-
tion of perfidy and cold, treacherous cruelty.
The Roman nose is a good one. It is called the nose
of wealth, and in its exaggerated forms it indicates a tend-
ency to avarice. If you want a prudent wife, one who
will be saving and thrifty, select the girl whose nose has
a little hump on it. She will have more at the end of
twenty years, though she started out empty-handed.
The Eye
No feature of the face is more self-assertive than the
eye.
Large, round, wide-open eyes are a sign of amiability
and gentleness in young girls, but always indicate a very
childlike and undeveloped character. When these eyes
are clear and luminous it is a sign of great trustfulness.
These women remain childlike always — or if they
grow worldly wise and suspicious their eyes narrow per-
ceptibly during the process.
Protruding eyes are a sure sign of a good memory, so
it will be well for the summer man who is not in ear-
nest not to commit himself. Just consider that the girl
with the slightly bulging orbs is usually very clever
mentally, capable of strong emotions and possessed of a
HOW TO READ CHARACTER 415
memory that makes her a terror to the youth who desires
to be forgotten.
The girl with deep-seated eyes is rarely to be found
with the merry, laughing throng of mischief-loving young
women that haunt the hotel piazzas of the watering
places. When she is discovered she is often alone with
her thoughts, which are somber frequently, as her com-
panions. She is introspective, and the man who becomes
her slave will have to answer an entire series of ques-
tions upon the good, the true and the beautiful to say
nothing of the muchness of the much and the greatness
of the small. The maid with the deep-set eyes is in dead
earnest. She takes herself very hard. There is no non-
sense about her. Be warned in time.
The long, narrow. Oriental-eyed girl is a variation of
the summer girl, who is also to be handled as a parcel
marked "With care; glass." She is charming and her
timid, oblique, dreamy but watchful expression means
everything on the list but that condition of inertia that
comes before dreams with ordinary mortals.
The long-eyed girl is suspicious — she is charming, but
oh! she is jealous, and I advise her swain to give her no
cause to distrust him, else she will make life such a bur-
den as it hath not entered into the joyous soul of the in-
experienced summer youth to conceive of.
The eye of the coquette scarcely needs description. It
is in evidence every moment of the day and every second
of the first half of the night, wherever men and women
congregate. It may be round or long, wide or narrow.
It is never tranquil. Its possessor is "making eyes" every
416 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
moment of her life. She may make them to your un-
doing. You may love her with all the strength of your
being, but you will be very foolish if you trust her. She
gives a shy glance and looks down.
" Beware, beware ! She is fooling thee ! "
The Eyebrows
A woman's eyebrows indicate sentimentality when they
are narrow and drop at the outward corners. They are
humorous when they are arched toward the extremity,
credulous when the arch is nearer the nose, and suspicious
or even malicious when they are very thick, heavy and
meet at the nose.
The Ear
The ear is a significant feature and a great telltale.
The aesthetic ear is small and shell-like, beautifully chis-
eled. A flabby, long, narrow ear is a sign of humility
and weakness. On the other hand, the steadfast, coura-
geous ear is of medium size, oval in shape, and well defined
in its convolutions. The lobe is detached and the ear is
set moderately low upon the head. The gossip's ear is
large, is usually strongly curved at the upper part and
is set rather low upon the head.
By these signs, not taken separately, but collectively,
balancing a weak point by the strength of a powerful
feature, you cannot fail to detect the characteristics of
your own or some one else's sweetheart,
„joo?
O ifOO^^'OC^ Q
CHAPTER XLVIl
EMACIATION
I am but a shado-w. — Shakespeare.
EMiNiNE beauty is not compatible with either
extreme stoutness or emaciation. The fat
woman is repellent because all the contours
of beauty are gone ; the hollow-cheeked, an-
gular, flat-chested woman cannot be really
physically lovely either, but the grossness of
obesity is certainly more to be deplored than
the cadaverous condition of emaciation. The path which
leads to flesh is one of roses compared to the road which
the corpulent must tread, as you will see. There are a
number of causes of emaciation ; sometimes the tendency
is inherited, and if there be a chronic organic disease, such
as consumption, or an inherited scrofulous disease, the
directions I have to give can only avail to a certain
point; but for the ordinary, everyday too thin woman
(417)
418 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
there is a certain and sure cure. First of all, plenty of
fresh air, for, paradoxical as it may appear, the very rule
by which fat women are to burn up their superfluous
adipose tissue, is the method by which the thin ones must
increase their muscular strength and put themselves in a
condition to assimilate the food which is to produce the
fat. Let all the thin women obey the following rules,
and unless they have some chronic ailment, I will stake
my reputation on the result : —
Helpful Suggestions
On arising or while you are still in bed, if convenient,
drink a glass of milk. Practice with your dumb-bells for
not more than five minutes, and dress leisurely, don't al-
low yourself to get nervous ; no one ever gains any time
by it, and many women have absolutely chiseled lines
into their faces in the nervous contractions of the mus-
cles about the brow, eyes and mouth from too violent
''hustling." It is just as important that a thin woman
should wear her clothing loose as for a fat woman not
to draw herself into an inadequate compass. Have your
clothing not only loose, but also light in weight, with lots
of spare space about the chest and shoulders.
For breakfast, if you are dependent upon your coffee,
drink it with as much cream or milk and sugar as you
can without its being distasteful to you; if you can do
so without too much sacrifice (for I know how most
women depend on their morning coffee) substitute cocoa
or chocolate. Make your first meal of oatmeal or any
EMACIATION 419
other palatable cereal, baked potatoes with butter and
cream, bread and butter, fruit, anything containing starch
or sugar. You are to avoid meats as much as possible ;
a bit of juicy steak or a broiled chop will not hurt you,
but it will not bring you either fat or weight. Many
very thin people are troubled with dyspepsia, and, of
course, if your food is not properly digested it cannot
make blood or muscle. Dyspepsia is a frequent cause of
emaciation.
When Nerves are Irritable
For nervous dyspepsia with a tendency to hysteria,
from which many emaciated women suffer, take any one
of the well-indorsed liquid peptonoids according to direc-
tion. Your druggist will be able to supply you. And
for the indigestion which causes red face after eating or
blotches on the face, the following : —
Tincture of nux vomica, five drops in water before each meal.
Subgallate of bismuth, five drops after each meal.
If your food trouble you, so that it will not always re-
main in your stomach, but produces faintness and retch-
ing, eat a little at a time and eat often. Try for this form
of dyspepsia the following : —
Aromatic spirits of ammonia, one teaspoonful in a wineglass of
water half an hour before eating, three times daily.
The digestive organs may be weakened by not giving
them enough to do, quite as effectively as by overworking
them. Many very thin people are very quick and nervous
420 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
in their movements ; they are a,lways in haste. Try to
cultivate laziness and eat as slowly as possible. Sugar is
the most effective of all fatteners. So you may indulge
your liking for sweets if it exist, and if not you must try
to form a taste for food containing sugar.
After your breakfast get ready for a nice, long walk;
if it be a possible thing let your companion be a bright
and cheerful creature, or a merry little child, for low
spirits are thieves lying in wait to ruin your digestion, to
carve lines and wrinkles in your face and to upset my
best endeavors to make you plump and pretty. Try to
recollect that the old saw ''Laugh and grow fat" was like
all the other proverbs founded on a truism. It is trite but
none the less a fact, that laughter will aid digestion and
assimilation of food and induce the sort of fatigue we are
striving for which is followed by a delicious hour or more
of tissue-repairing indolence. With your clothing loose,
your feet shod in comfortable, flat-heeled shoes, you start
forth on your promenade which may properly be called a
constitutional. Throw your shoulders back, close your
mouth and take as long and deep breaths as possible.
Keep your head up, your chin well forward, and if you
walk where it will not attract too much attention, do so
with your hands clasped behind your back. I should like
you for your personal satisfaction to get weighed and have
your chest measured before entering upon the fat-producing
regime. It will be most interesting to you to watch your
progress by the infallible tests of weight and measure-
ments. Do not walk until you are tired and nervous and
irritable ; an hour to commence with is quite suflBcient.
EMACIATION 421
Now, if you are a woman of leisure, take a warm bath
on your return, and after it anoint the entire body with
the following skin food: —
CATHAY SKIN FOOD
Melt together over a warm bath.
White wax 2 drachms.
Spermaceti 2 drachms.
Lanolin 2 ounces.
Oil of sweet almonds ... 4 ounces.
Balsam of Mecca 3 drachms.
Oil of ro&es ( attar ) . . . .10 drops.
This skin food will nourish the impoverished cuticle.
Rub it in so you are not left in a greasy condition and
then go to your room and lie down for a rest of an hour
or more; sleep if you can, but in any case rest. If you
are hungry take a glass of milk or a bottle of koumiss,
which may be obtained at the apothecary's. Of course
where one has a family one can not give up the morning
hours to a bath and nap. Substitute the same directions
for the late afternoon or delay the bath and anointing un-
til just before retiring — but in this case try and get an
undisturbed hour or two during the day for absolute rest
away from noise and free from interruption. Many very
lean women are inclined to melancholia. With such a
tendency you should make the strongest effort to cultivate
cheerfulness. You will never get round and pretty while
you allow yourself to be low spirited. Choose bright, joy-
ous companions and avoid every morbid association, not
only with people, but books and plays — even music, if too
sad, is unhealthful for you. Let our fat, jolly sisters steady
422 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
themselves a little by contact with the sadder side of life.
Take five minutes' exercise with dumb-bells before lunch-
eon. For luncheon you may follow your own fancy, only
abstaining from tea or coffee, substituting milk, or a min-
eral water, if you prefer, and choosing such vegetables as
peas, beans, potatoes, eggplant and green corn, in preference
to cucumbers, salads, turnips, cauliflowers, etc. All farina-
ceous foods are good for yoa if you find them palatable.
Eat freely of oatmeal, wheat foods, rice, hominy, corn meal
and fruits with cream and sugar.
The Right Sort of Exercise
In the afternoon you should take some exercise —
horseback riding, tennis, rowing, bicycling or more walk-
ing, and an hour of rest again if possible. Recollect you
are cultivating idleness, you are to make a duty of being
lazy. If you are in the habit of doing fine needlework I
wish you would cease for a time. I find the art-embroid-
ery craze accountable for many crow's-feet and for a
nervous condition which is incompatible with a woman's
beauty. Thin women are usually very busy and active,
and to be positively idle is a real pain to them — but con-
tent yourself for the present with some coarser work ; and
those of you who are so happy as to live away from the
wear and tear of city life can surely do a bit of garden-
ing or other out-of-door work. It often happens that very
thin women are really half starved ; they have no appetite
and in consequence no strength, no ambition, no courage,
nothing but frayed-out nerves and a threadbare temper. If
you have a dislike for food you must take a good tonic.
EMACIATION 423
A GOOD TONIC
Gentian root 2 ounces.
Bitter oranges, sliced . . . . 1 ounce.
Virginia snake root ..... ^ ounce.
Bruise, and infuse for four days in 1 pint of brandy; then add
1 pint of water. A wineglassful to be taken occasionally. This is
also excellent for flatulency.
Lessons in elocution or singing will be of great bene-
fit to the narrow-chested woman, and where the emacia-
tion is progressive and there is a cough, with a bright
flush in the afternoon, send immediately for one of the
emulsions of cod-liver oil, Scott's is the standard, and
take it according to directions. I have arrested many
cases of emaciation with a tendency to consumption by a
good emulsion of cod-liver oil and proper voice culture.
For dinner you may eat oysters or clams, soups, fish, rare
meats, vegetables except those proscribed, sauces, entrees,
sweets and fruits. You may drink beer, porter, stout,
Burgundy or a little sweet champagne — always in mod-
eration — but unless you have been in the habit of taking
something of the kind at dinner, I do not advise stimu-
lants, as they frequently interfere with the digestive pro-
cesses and often are the cause of truly hideous skin
diseases. Moreover it is far more charming to see our
women total abstainers, to say nothing of the moral side
of the question. Avoid all trying work or reading by
artificial light. Before retiring you will of course take
your warm bath and scrub — without reference to the
bath here advised in the morning. Sleep all you can.
Arrange your life so that you will get the most rest for
A.— 22
424
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
your body and mind possible. Cultivate calmness and
placidity and determine to disprove the old English ax-
iom that "A sweet temper and a bony woman never
dwell under the same roof."
Now, dear reader, you may have been so distressingly
thin for so many years that you have come to consider
emaciation your normal condition and have settled down
to go through life, a shadow. You have given up hope, if
you ever had any, of holding up your head in the pres-
ence of your plump, well-rounded sisters and when you
read what I have written you say, perhaps with a sigh,
*'That may be all very well for some, but not for me''
or, if more sceptical still, you exclaim in sarcastic tem-
per, "It may do in theory but it won't work in actual
experience." Take heart then, for this treatment is for
you and you can test it for yourself with every assurance
of success. And do not credit me with having evolved
a fine-spun theory of no value in practice. It has been
tried with most remarkable results and in cases so des-
perate as to baffle the doctors, in proof of which I beg
you to read the story of Catherine Lane which follows.
(See Appendix A, page 456.)
()iira'»
CHAPTER XLVIII
OBESITY
O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt. — Romeo and Juliet.
^
li
Aug. 16,
i(
28
ii
July 5, hips^
July 12,
July 19,
July 26,
Aug. 2,
Aug. 9,
Aug. 16,
July 5, neck,
July 12,
July 19,
July 26,
Aug. 2,
Aug. 9,
Aug. 16,
inches.
55
51
46
44
44
42
42
16}4 inches.
16
15>^
14M
14
14
14
Decrease in weight . . 27 pounds.
Decrease in bust m's're . 7 inches.
Decrease in waist m's're 7 "
Decrease in hip m's're .13 "
Decrease in neck m's're 2)^ *'
When I discharged Mrs. Baker, I told her that she now knew as
much about the treatment for obesity as I did. She promised to con-
tinue the regimen and let me hear from her.
Note.— Mrs. Baker's case was complicated hy an organic difficulty and by the pres-
sure of the fatty tissues upon the vital organs of the body. She was simply a victim of
496 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
aggravated obesity. She was fully sixty pounds heavier than she should have been for
her height. Not one stout woman in ten is that much overweight. Reduction in most
cases therefore becomes a simpler and easier task than she was called upon to perform.
She accomplished that task fully to her own unbounded delight and to the satisfaction of
her family and friends. She has since kept the faith. I had not seen her for many
months until a very few days before this note was penned. She entered my oflB.ce, not
with other callers but alone. I looked squarely at her and, to my subsequent apologetic
confusion, I did not recognize her until she said: "Why, don't you know me, Mrs. Ayer?
I'm Mrs. Baker." There she stood, tall, fair proportioned, healthy, happy and beaming — a
flower of mature womanhood, just as Nature intended she should be.
I have thus given you in detail the history of two cases which excited
no little attention and which called forth hundreds of letters from those
afflicted with emaciation on the one hand, or obesity on the other. There
seemed to lurk in the minds of some a doubt as to whether the results
claimed could be accomplished without the aid of drugs and doctors. It
was to establish this very fact that the experiments were undertaken, and
it was proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that, barring constitutional
ailments, there is hope for the thinnest or the stoutest woman in the land
— or man for that matter, as the treatment would be practically the same
regardless of sex. It is not a case of drugs or doctors. The remedy in
either event rests solely with the patient. As a matter of fact, abnor-
mally thin people live and die thin, and ultrafat people live and die fat,
because, in most cases, they do not possess the moral courage and stamina
to follow out the treatment and then conform to a sensible diet. Some
begin well enough and benefit accordingly, but appetite and inclination
get the better of good resolutions. I once had a class of more than sixty
obesity patients ; fifty-three of these reduced themselves to a satisfactory
condition and have since kept themselves in statu quo by observing the
simple rules laid down. The excuse need never be made that "one must
eat what one likes." If this were true one need not eat everything that
one likes. Dieting is not starving, and when objectionable articles are
eliminated there still remains a long list of good things and at a price
within the reach of all.
In conclusion it may be repeated that the treatment and regimen
applies to women and men alike, and can be tested by the poor as
well as the rich, and I feel that I may be pardoned when I say that
it is a duty that Ve owe to ourselves, our families and even to our
friends to keep in a normal, healthful and nonoffensive physical condi-
tion, especially when that object can be accomplished by the observ-
ance of a few simple rules pertaining to diet, exercise and sleep.
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APPENDIX C
EASILY-MADE REMEDIES AND TOILET PREPAEATIONS
^ VERT woman will agree with me that it is the small lacks
that mar our comfort and ruffle the domestic waters.
In getting ready for an outing, the prudent woman
will consider the distress of mind and body she will be-
yond peradventure have to endure, if she court the sun
and breezes without a well -chosen stock of healing cream,
soothing lotions and refreshing aromatic waters.
The following remedies will often be found useful : —
WITCH HAZEL CREAM
White wax, one ounce; spermaceti, one ounce; almond oil, three ounces;
lanolin, one ounce ; place these four ingredients into the inner vessel
of the custard boiler. Fill the outer vessel about half full of warm
water and set over the fire. Place the inner vessel into the outer re-
ceptacle. When all the ingredients have melted, take the inner vessel
out, stir the mixture constantly until cold, adding little by little, dur-
ing the stirring, three ounces of rose water, one ounce of witch hazel,
and one drachm of tincture of benzoin. The result will be more than
half a pound of delicious cream for the purpose suggested.
Good toilet vinegars are very expensive if purchased over the coun-
ter. No preparation for the toilet can be more easily compounded : —
(499)
500 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
FORMULA FOR AROMATIC VINEGAR
Take of glacial acetic acid, 1 pound ; rectified spirits, 2 imperial
fluid ounces, camphor (gum crushed small) 2J ounces ; oil of cloves,
IJ drachms ; oil of rosemary, 1 drachm ; oil of bergamot, oil of cinna-
mon, oil of lavender, oil of pimento, oil of neroli, each ^ drachm. Mix
all together ; pour into a large bottle, and shake until the whole of
the camphor is dissolved.
FOR MOSQUITO STINGS
It is said that rubbing the inflamed part with a slice of raw onion
will effectively relieve the pain and irritation of mosquito stings. I am
not certain that the remedy is not more disagreeable than the affliction.
A solution of menthol in alcohol is really excellent for the stings
of all insects. Any good apothecary will know the proper strength.
Ivy poisoning is so painful, that it is well to have a recipe which
can be made up easily, should it unfortunately be required. The fol-
lowing has been most successful. It is the formula of a well-known
physician : —
POISONING FROM IVY
Carbonate of lead
Powdered arrowroot
Powdered gum acacia .
Hydrochlorate of cocaine
Olive oil
2 drachms.
2 drachms.
1 drachm.
10 drachms.
3 ounces.
Spread over the skin affected.
In cases of bad stings from insects, where the pain is intense,
and there is no abrasion of the skin, an application of a weak so-
lution of cocaine will bring instant relief. Cocaine should however
always, if possible, be given by physician's orders.
For daily use, merely as a grateful wash, the baby and the grand-
mother, and all the intermediaries, will find nothing more refreshing
and agreeable than the old-fashioned Orange Flower Water Lotion,
made as follows : —
ORANGE FLOWER WATER LOTION
Glycerine 1 ounce.
Orange flower water .... 1 pint.
Pulverized borax 3 drachms.
APPENDIX 501
FRENCH MILK OF ROSES
(A Cosmetic Wash of Renown)
Tincture of benzoin (simple) . . ^ fluid ounce.
Tincture of styrax -J fluid ounce.
Esprit de rose 1 to 2 fluid drachms.
Rectified spirits 2^ fluid ounces.
Mix ; add gradually, rose water . 16^ fluid ounces.
Augustin recommends the addition of a little carbonate of potash
(say 1 dr. to the pint) when used as a lotion for acne.
CUCUMBER CREAM
Put six ounces of sweet almond oil into the inside receptacle
of a custard boiler. Put as much water into the outside boiler as
though you were about to make a custard. Set the two ( one in-
side the other) over the fire. Have ready four good-sized cucum-
bers. Wipe them carefully so that they are perfectly clean. Cut
them into squares, two or three inches in size. Do not remove the
peel. When the almond oil begins to warm, put the cucumbers in it.
Set the custard boiler on the back of the stove, and let the water merely
simmer for four or five hours. Strain. To six ounces of the strained
liquid add one ounce of white wax, one of spermaceti and two ounces
of lanolin. Heat until the wax, spermaceti and lanolin are melted. Then
take off the fire, and beat with an egg beater until cold, adding during
the beating process two teaspoonfuls of tincture of benzoin. This will
make a delicious cucumber cream, if properly and carefully prepared.
A NEW REMEDY FOR BLACKHEADS
Doctor Hebra, of Vienna, a world-renowned dermatologist, advises
the following for curing blackheads. Bathe the face at night with the
following lotion : —
Rose water 10 grammes.
Pure alcohol 10 grammes.
Glycerine 10 grammes.
Powdered borax .... 5 grammes.
After five minutes apply this mixture : —
Pure alcohol 80 grammes.
Spirits of lavender .... 10 grammes.
Green soap 40 grammes.
Wash off in the morning.
\
502 ^ HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
ANTIPHELIC LOTION FOR REMOVING FRECKLES— (Hardy)
Bichloride of mercury ....... 1 gramme.
Sulphate of zinc 2 grammes.
Acetate of lead ,. , . 2 grammes.
Distilled water enough to dissolve.
Agitate. Add distilled water .... 260 grammes.
Apply this lotion after bathing the skin with warm water, morning
and night.
This lotion will cause a slight inflammation and will gently remove
the cuticle. It is efficacious but painful.
A CURE FOR PARASITES — (Pierre Vigier)
Bichloride of mercury, 5 grammes; pure glycerine, 100 grammes. Ap-
ply to the parts afflicted. It will destroy all parasites, and can be washed
off half an hour after it has been rubbed into the scalp, or wherever
required.
CURE FOR CONFLUENT ACNE — (Monin)
Apply the following mixture to the afflicted parts morning and night :
Glycerine 40 grammes.
Oxide of zinc 5 grammes.
Soap tincture 10 grammes.
Potassa alum 2 grammes. Mix.
For internal treatment in connection with the above, the patient
should take each morning before breakfast one tablespoonful of a
mixture composed of equal parts of pure glycerine and castor oil.
TO SCATTER BOILS — (Monin)
Apply frequent compresses wet with equal parts of tincture 6i iodine,
tincture of arnica and spirits of camphor. If the patient will drink tar
water in connection with the local treatment, it will aid in aborting the
boils.
SKIN FOOD
White wax 1 ounce.
Spermaceti 1 ounce.
Lanolin 2 ounces.
Sweet almond oil 4'^.ounces.
Cocoanut oil 2 ounces.
Tincture of benzoin 30 drops.
Orange flower water 2 'ounces.
Melt the first five ingredients together. Take off the fire and beat
until nearly cold, adding, little by little, the benzoin, and lastly, the
orange flower water.
APPENDIX 503
SULPHUR AND MOLASSES
This is an excellent spring remedy for the skin.
Get five cents' worth of sulphur precipitate. Put two teaspoonfuls in
the bottom of a glass. See that there are no lumps in it. Pour six tea-
spoonfuls of syrup or molasses on the sulphur. Stir. Take one teaspoon-
ful of the mixture before breakfast, and one just before going to bed, for
three days. Omit for three days. Repeat and omit for three days, until
you have taken the preparation for nine days.
MARSH-MALLOW LOTION
Is said to be excellent for distended veins, and is made as follows:
Eau de guimauve (mallows) . 200 grammes.
Benzoate of soda .... 5 grammes.
Glycerine 20 grammes.
Alcohol 10 grammes.
TO REMOVE MOTH PATCH OR LIVER MARK OF PREGNANCY
Cocoa butter 10 grammes.
Castor oil 10 grammes.
Oxide of zinc .... 20 centigrammes.
White precipitate ... 10 centigrammes.
Essence of rose .... 10 drops.
Apply to the moth patch night and morning.
TO WHITEN THE HANDS— (Cazenave)
Sweet and bitter almonds, blanched and pounded into a paste, 250
grammes each ; lemon juice, 60 grammes ; sweet milk, 30 grammes ;
sweet almond oil, 90 grammes ; brandy, 180 grammes.
BALDNESS
Where the hair falls out in spots the following is an excellent
remedy : —
Distilled rose water . . . 180 grammes.
Aromatic vinegar .
Pure glycerine .
Tincture nux vomica
Tincture cantharides
20 grammes.
10 grammes.
15 grammes.
10 grammes.
Rub gently into the scalp where the hair has fallen out.
504 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
ASTRINGENT POMADE FOR FLABBY, MOIST SKINS— (Monin)
White vaseline
30
grammes.
4 grammes.
2 grammes.
2 grammes.
50 centigrammes.
Extract of ralantua
Tincture of Provence roses
Tincture of vanilla .
Tincture of capsicum' .
Apply at night.
SOAP JULEP FOR SHAMPOO
Alcohol 8 ounces.
Rose water 1 quart.
Extract of rondeletia .... 2 ounces.
White soap 14 grammes.
Saffron v^ater 14 ounces.
Cut the soap into small shavings. Put it upon the stove with the
saffron and one pint of rose water, and let it boil gently until the soap
is all melted. Then add the rest of the rose water, the alcohol and the
rondeletia. Bottle and use as any shampoo.
A DELIGHTFUL FRUIT VINEGAR FOR THE TOILET
Raspberries (red), 500 grammes ; red rose leaves, a handful ; pure
strained honey, 10 grammes. Pour a quart of white vinegar over all.
Let stand in a glass vessel for a month ; filter, and use diluted with
water, or pure as agreeable.
ORIENTAL METHOD OF DARKENING THE EYELIDS — OR KOHOL
Pulverized Chinese ink, 10 grammes; rose water heated, 120
grammes. Stir until the mixture becomes a thick paste. Apply with
a tiny camel's-hair brush or pad to the eyelashes and lids to give
the languorous appearance regarded as so beautiful by Orientals.
SIMPLE TINCTURE OF BENZOIN
A few drops of tincture of benzoin added to the bath gives a delicious
odor, and in larger quantities, diluted with water, benzoin serves to give
the flesh firmness, and also possesses the quality of rendering the skin
fair. The simple tincture can be easily made at home as follows : —
Macerate four ounces of powdered gum benzoin ; put it into an open-
mouthed bottle ; add one quart of pure alcohol. Let it stand a week.
Agitate the bottle frequently. Pass it through filtering paper and it
will be ready for use.
APPENDIX 505
AROMATIC VINEGAR
Glacial acetic acid 8 ounces.
Pure alcohol 1 ounce.
Crushed gum camphor .... 1 J ounces.
Oil of cloves (finest quality). . £ drachm.
Oil of rosemary ^ drachm.
Oil of bergamot ...... ^ drachm.
Oil of cinnamon ^ drachm.
Oil of lavender J drachm.
Oil of pimento 4 drachm.
Neroli or essence de petit grain . J drachm.
Mix in a stoppered bottle until the whole of the camphor is dissolved.
This makes a delicate aromatic vinegar and serves many purposes. It is
particularly refreshing as an adjunct to the bath in warm weather.
IMITATION LILY OF THE VALLEY
This very delicate odor is made by mixing the following : —
Extract of tuberose 4 ounces.
Extract of jasmine ^ ounce.
Extract of orange flower ... 1 ounce.
Extract of vanilla 1^ ounces.
Extract of cassia 2 ounces.
Extract of rose 2 ounces.
Oil of bitter almonds .... 1 drop.
Keep this mixture for a month, when it will be ready to use. If care-
fully compounded it will be as fine as any imported lily of the valley
extract.
JELLY OF ROSES
This is a very nice preparation for those persons who care for the
isinglass as an ingredient in cosmetic formulas : —
Finest Russian isinglass ... J ounce.
Glycerine 2 ounces.
Rose water 6 ounces.
Oil of roses . . . . . . .10 drops.
Dissolve the isinglass in the rose water ; add the glycerine and oil of
roses; beat and let stand until jellied.
506 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
HOME-MADE BAY RUM
Saturate a quarter-pound block of carbonate of magnesia with oil of
bay ; pulverize the magnesia, place in a filter and pour water through it
until the desired quantity is obtained, then add alcohol. The quantity
of liquid employed depends upon the desired strength and quality of the
bay rum.
HONEY OF VIOLETS
The latest fad of the fashionable woman who uses violet perfume and
affects fresh violets for her corsage each day is a wash with which she
rinses her mouth, and which is called "Honey of Violets."
Expressed juice of violets . . 1 fluid ounce.
Clarified honey 2 ounces.
Mix, without heat, by agitation in a glass bottle. Use as a mouth
wash and to perfume the breath.
SPIRITS OF CAMPHOR
Take one ounce of gum camphor ; break it into small pieces ; put it
into a wide-necked bottle and pour nine fluid ounces of pure alcohol over
it. Shake it till the camphor dissolves.
FLORIDA WATER
Oil of lavender 2 drachms.
Oil of bergamot 2 drachms.
Oil of lemon 2 drachms.
Tincture of turmeric .... 1 drachm.
Oil of neroli 1 drachm.
Oil of balm 30 drops.
Oil of roses 10 drops.
Mix these together with two pints deodorized alcohol.
COMMON COLOGNE WATER
Oil of lavender .... 14 fluid ounces.
Oil of rosemary .... -J fluid ounce.
Oil of lemon 1 fluid ounce.
Oil of cinnamon .... 20 drops.
Alcohol 1 gallon.
Mix well and bottle for use.
APPENDIX 507
STRAWBERRY VINEGAR
This is excellent, diluted in water, for making the skin firm and
fresh : —
Fresh strawberries, pulled . . . . 3 pints.
White wine vinegar 1 quart.
Let steep seven days and strain.
ORANGE FLOWER WATER
Orange flowers 7 pounds.
Fresh peel of bitter oranges . . 8 ounces.
Water 2 gallons.
Macerate twenty-four hours and then distill one gallon.
ESPRIT DE ROSE
Finest simple esprit de rose . . 1 pint.
Essence of ambergris . . . . ^ fluid drachm.
Essence of rose geranium . . . ^ fluid drachm.
Mix. This makes a delicately fragrant perfume.
CHAPPED LIPS
Windy weather is very apt to produce chapped lips, particu-
larly in subjects who are troubled with poor circulation. A little
glycerine, diluted with about twice its weight of rose water, applied to
the lips before going out will generally prevent their chapping and
keep them in a healthful, comfortable state.
DELICATE FACE-POWDER
Powdered oleate of zinc ... ^ ounce.
Powdered arrowroot .... 1 ounce.
Oil of roses 3 drops.
Sift through fine bolting silk.
508
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
Old-Fashioned Formulas
Our grandmothers had great confidence in the merits of a very
delightful and effective preparation in the shape of a skin lotion for
every-day use known as milk of rose and elder. It is fragrant and
pleasant to use, and has a very soothing and grateful effect upon
highly sensitive skins : —
SKIN LOTION
Spermaceti ....
White soap in powder
White wax ( pulverized )
Almond oil (sweet)
Jordan almonds
Pure alcohol
Distilled water .
Attar of roses .
Oil of neroli
Essence of jasmine
Essence of white rose
12
jrams.
£ drachms.
£ drachms.
J drachms.
ounces.
ounces.
ounces.
drops.
drops.
^ drachm.
^ drachm.
3
2
8
3
5
Blanch the almonds and beat them into a smooth paste, adding
some water gradually to form a thin cream. Melt the wax, sperma-
ceti and almond oil together, and to this add the soap, previously rubbed
down, with one-half ounce of water. To this add, in small quantities,
the remainder of the water, assiduously stirring. Then add the strained
almond cream and finally the alcohol and the perfume.
A little of this milk may be rubbed into the skin several times during
the day. The effect is permanently beneficial.
GRANDMA'S REFRESHING TOILET LOTION
The cream your great grandmother used so successfully may be
excellent. At any rate, you say grandma was famous for her wonderful
skin, and this is all she ever used.
Here is her famous formula. It was called " Grandma's Refreshing
Toilet Lotion " and made as follows : —
Bean flowers 1 pound.
Rose leaves 7 ounces.
Spring water 1 quart.
Distill the above in a water bath until about a pint of liquid is
produced, then add the distilled product of the juice of two lemons
APPENDIX 509
and perfume to taste with bergamot. Pour the mixture into a bottle,
cork tightly and put aside for future use. To use it dip a fine linen
cloth into the mixture and place it on the face every evening.
A SIMPLE COMPLEXION RECIPE
I remember my own grandmother's wonderful complexion recipe
and how my mother guarded it as a family treasure. It is simple
enough and there is nothing at all mysterious about it, though we
were brought up to think so.
Here it is, and very good, too : —
Orange flower water .... 8 ounces.
Tincture of benzoin .... 2 drachms.
Add the benzoin drop by drop to the orange flower water, stirring
constantly.
MILK OF ROSES
The most famous belle of Kentucky for a period of over a quar-
ter of a century gave me a formula which she declared had preserved
her fine skin through her long reign of belledom. She called it " Milk
of Roses." It is made thus : —
Place in a water bath one ounce of melted, fine, white, vegetable oil
soap ; add six ounces of ^ure, fresh rose water. Then add an ounce
each of spermaceti and white wax, and continue the heat until all are
melted. Next take one pound of blanched almonds, beat them to a
meal in a clean marble mortar, with three and one-half pints more rose
water, admitted portion-wise during the operation. Strain this emul-
sion without pressure through washed white muslin and run very slowly
into the previously formed soap mixture. Mix with energy. Toward
the end of this part of the process two drachms of attar of roses, dis-
solved in eight ounces of pure alcohol, are to be let into the mixture
very gradually during constant manipulation. The last operation is to
strain, and after the liquid has had a day's repose to bottle it. Use night
and morning.
NINON DE L'ENCLOS BEAUTIFIER
A lotion accredited to the beautiful Ninon de L'Enclos, but which
in reality has been used from time immemorial, is made from half an
ounce of tincture of benzoin, with sixteen ounces of rose water and
510 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
ten drops of attar of roses. Mixed with an equal portion of sweet
almond oil, and rubbed into the arms and neck daily, this ought to be
a fine tissue builder.
Complexion Hints and Recipes
creme de pistache
This is a very delicate cream for the skin, and is useful for tan
and sunburn instead of the ordinary cold cream. It agrees with some
skins better than any other emollient : —
Pistachio nuts, one and one-half ounces ; green oil, palm soap, white
wax and spermaceti, each one-half ounce ; orange flower water, twenty
ounces ; essence of neroli, six ounces. Place the soap and five ounces
of the flower water into the inner receptacle of the water bath. Put
over the fire until the* soap is melted. Then add the green oil, wax
and spermaceti and continue the heat until they also are melted. Put
the pistachio nuts into a clean marble mortar, pound until they form
a paste. Mix the remainder of the orange flower water with this paste
and strain without pressure and run very slowly into the previously
formed mixture. Beat continuously, adding the essence of neroli to-
ward the latter part of the performance.
POWDER FOR RELIEVING IRRITATION OF THE SKIN
Powdered camphor .... 2 grammes.
Powdered starch .... 60 grammes.
Oxide of zinc . . . . . 15 grammes.
Mix thoroughly. Before applying, moisten the face slightly with
a little cold cream.
EMULSION OF SPERMACETI FOR EXORIATIONS, CHAPS, ETC.
Simple syrup 1^ fluid ounces.
Powdered gum arabic ... ^ ounce.
Mix them in a warm mortar, add of
Spermaceti (pure) .... ^ ounce.
Triturate with hot pestle until united ; add gradually,
Warm water 12 fluid ounces,
so as to make an emulsion, continuing the agitation until the liquid
is quite cold.
APPENDIX 511
BLACKHEADS OF THE SKIN
I
Boracic acid 1 drachm.
Alcohol 1 ounce.
Rose water 2 ounces.
Use with friction twice a day on the skin affected.
II
Ether 1 ounce.
Soap liniment 1 ounce.
Upon retiring for the night, rub into the spots affected, and in the
morning wash the surface with hot water.
The following preparation will be found excellent for the com-
plexion : —
Sweet almonds . . . . . 32 grammes.
Bitter almonds 10 grammes.
Rose water 180 grammes.
Make the emulsion, and add,
Benzoate of soda .... 1 gramme.
The following is another recipe of great efficacy in obliterating
wrinkles, and also the traces of smallpox : —
Alcohol 12 grammes.
Tincture of benzoin ... 2 grammes.
Liquid storax 2 grammes.
Balsam of Judea .... 5 drops.
Add four or five drops of the mixture to half a glass of water,
and use this at night as a lotion, letting it dry on the face. In the
morning wash the face in water from which the chill has been taken off.
For coarse complexions a very effectual remedy is a cotton mask
saturated with distilled water and worn at night. To refine a coarse,
stippled skin, six or seven weeks will be necessary, but the result will
be ample compensation for the trouble taken.
An excellent paste for refining the complexion is composed of three
ounces of ground barley, one ounce of honey and the white of an Qgg-
This is to be spread at night on the cheeks, nose and forehead, and
washed off in the morning with tepid water.
A.— 27
512 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
For a blotched skin a wash composed of one ounce of glycerine,
half an ounce of rosemary water and twenty drops of carbolic acid,
will be found very effectual.
SKIN FOOD WITHOUT LANOLIN
Sweet almond oil. . . . . .4 ounces.
Spermaceti 1 ounce.
White wax . . 1 ounce.
* Pulverized borax 1^ drachms.
Glycerine ' ^i ounces.
Orange flower water . . . . ^ ounce.
Oil of neroli 1 drop.
Tincture of benzoin ^ drachm.
Melt the wax, spermaceti and oil of almonds together. Dissolve the
borax in the orange flower water and glycerine. Add to the melted in-
gredients, stirring continually. The mixture must be beaten until it is
cold. Just before the mass hardens add the benzoin drop by drop and
the perfume.
FOR RELAXED SKIN
Where the skin is much relaxed a slightly astringent water may be
used with good effect :^ — ■
Get eight ounces of orange flower water and one-fourth drachm of
simple tincture of benzoin. Drop the benzoin a little at a time into the
orange flower water. Shake the bottle. The result will be a milky
liquid. Dip a linen cloth into a little of this liquid and bathe the face.
If it feel drawn add a little more orange flower water. Tincture of ben-
zoin varies somewhat in strength. It should not feel uncomfortable upon
the face. When it does, and pulls the skin, it is too powerful.
FOR SHINY SKIN
If as well as being shiny the skin appear greasy also, you cannot do
better than bathe it twice a day with this lotion : —
Sulphate of zinc 30 grains.
Eau de Cologne 1 ounce.
Rose water 2 ounces.
LOTION FOR AN OILY SKIN (No. i)
There is nothing more discouraging than the oily face, which seems
to be constitutional, almost, with some women. I have had good
APPENDIX • 513
success lately with the simple remedy which I here give, and which
in many cases will remove the shiny appearance of the most obdurate
oily faces : —
Boric acid 1 drachm.
Distilled witch hazel .... 4 ounces.
Apply with a piece of old linen or a bit of absorbent cotton.
LOTION FOR AN OILY SKIN (No. 2)
An old remedy for an oily skin is being revived. It is made as fol-
lows : —
Pulverized borax 1 ounce.
Pure glycerine 2 ounces.
Camphor water (not spirits of camphor) 2 quarts.
The skin should be bathed with this lotion two or three times a
day, and the treatment should be persisted in for three months at least.
LOTION FOR AN OILY SKIN (No. 3)
Where the oiliness of the skin is excessive the following lotion ap-
plied two or three times daily is excellent : —
Sulphate of zinc 2 grains.
Compound tincture of lavender . 8 drops.
Distilled water 1 ounce.
FOR DRY AND SCALY SKIN
When the skin is inclined to become dry and scaly from expo-
sure, the following lotion mav be used with excellent effect : —
Iodide of potassium . . 1 to 2 drachms.
Distilled water 1 pint.
Dissolve and add one ounce of pure glycerine.
TO SOFTEN THE SKIN OF THE FACE
Lanolin 1 ounce.
Almond oil 1 ounce.
Simple tincture of benzoin . . ^ ounce.
Mix the three ingredients thoroughly together and rub into the
skin at night before going to bed.
514 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
BLOTCHY SKINS
The following wash will sometimes be found very effective for this
most annoying trouble : —
Glycerine 1 ounce.
Rosemary water ^ ounce.
Carbolic acid 20 drops.
Mix thoroughly and apply to the face with a soft bit of linen or a
velvet sponge.
CUCUMBERS FOR THE COMPLEXION
The average girl, country or city, knows little of the value of cucum-
bers as a complexion beautifier.
Peel a cucumber, cut in thick slices, and apply to the face, allowing
the liquid to dry of its own accord. This will make the skin soft and
white.
NEW CURE FOR WRINKLES
Even very young women are seen with strongly-marked wrinkles in
the forehead which they have acquired through contracting the brows.
A friend tells me that these wrinkles will disappear under the following
treatment : — -
Bind the forehead at night with a compress of new linen soaked in a
mixture of equal parts of alcohol and white of egg. Allow the compress
to remain on all night and continue the treatment until the wrinkles
have disappeared.
Wrinkles may sometimes be effaced by the following treatment, if
persistently continued : —
Cut some narrow strips of court-plaster, then, with the thumb and
forefinger of one hand, stretch the skin furrowed by the wrinkle until
it is perfectly smooth, and with the other hand apply over the wrinkle
a strip of the court-plaster. This application is of course best made
at night.
The following mixture, used as a lotion, is of great eflBcacy in re-
moving wrinkles, but it is a little difficult to prepare, and requires, in
addition, to be distilled : —
In 350 grammes of alcohol dissolve,
Pulverized gum benzoin . . 2 grammes.
Frankincense 2 grammes.
Gum arable 2 grammes.
ijCILBERT
THE PROPER WAY TO USE THE CAMEL'S-HAIR FACE-SCRUBBING BRUSH
(516)
APPENDIX ' 517
When dissolved add,
Pine-nut kernels, pulverized . 3 grammes.
Sweet almonds, pulverized . 3 grammes.
Cloves, pulverized .... 1 gramme.
Nutmeg, pulverized .... 1 gramme.
Let the mixture stand for two days, stirring it twice daily. Then
add,
Rose water 45 grammes.
Distill to half the quantity.
If a still is not at hand, a substitute may be made by fastening
to the spout of the kettle an India-rubber tube, which, passing through
a vessel of cold water, will conduct the steam, condensed in its pas-
sage through the water, into a receiving vessel.
LOTION FOR PREMATURE WRINKLES
Rose water 12 fluid ounces.
Almond milk 3 fluid ounces.
Sulphate of aluminium . 120 grains.
FOR BROWN SPOTS
Brown spots are caused by some disturbance of the liver. I don't
think any external application will have very much effect so long as the
cause remains. You might try this lotion, which will at least be tem-
porarily effective : —
Bichloride of mercury (coarse powder) . 12 grains.
Extract of witch hazel 2 ounces.
Rose water 2 ounces.
Mix. Mop over the spots night and morning. Bichloride of mercury
is a dangerous poison, and while perfectly proper to use as here sug-
gested, should be kept out of the reach of ignorant persons and children.
INSTEAD OF COLD CREAM
Cold cream disagrees with many skins. If it make the skin rough
try a little sweet almond oil, slightly perfumed with attar of roses or
bergamot every night after washing. It should be well massaged in,
and the face then gently wiped with a soft rag or towel till all superflu-
ous oil is removed,
518 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
TO CURE RINGWORM
To cure ringworm, add to one part of sulphuric acid sixteen to twenty
parts water. Use a brush or feather, and apply it to the ringworm night
and morning. A few dressings will generally cure. If the solution be
too strong dilute it with more water, and if the irritation be excessive
apply a little vaseline, but avoid soap.
A dainty rose soap is made as follows : —
ROSEBUD SOAP
White castile soap (pure) . . 3 pounds.
White curd soap 2 pounds.
Distilled water ^ pint.
Melt together in a custard boiler, and add of
Vermilion (powdered) ... ^ ounce.
After the mixture has cooled a little, stir in
Attar of roses ...... 1 drachm.
Oil of bergamot 1^ drachms.
Oil of cinnamon £ drachm.
Oil of rose geranium ... ^ drachm.
Pour into molds to harden.
ENLARGED PORES
It takes a long time to cure enlarged pores, and the only way I know
of is by the use of the scrubbing brush and a pure hygienic soap. By
this process the pores, which have become enlarged by the clogged secre-
tions, are kept free, and gradually they will contract and become normal
in size. I know of thousands of cures effected in this manner.
FOR OBSTINATE FRECKLES
Where everything else has failed, the woman with obstinate freckles
may with benefit try the formula I here give and which has succeeded
in a very obdurate case under my care : —
Oxide of zinc ^ drachm.
Subiodide of bismuth ... ^ drachm.
Dextrin 1£ drachms.
Glycerine 1^ drachms.
Spread the paste upon the freckles at night before going to bed.
In the morning remove what remains with a little powdered borax and
sweet oil.
APPENDIX 519
HEROIC REMEDY FOR FRECKLES
Distilled water 12 ounces.
Dextrin 1 ounce.
Glycerine 4 ounces.
Oxide of zinc 320 grains.
Oxychloride of bismuth . . . 120 grains.
Mercuric chloride 12 grains.
This being a powerful application, it should be used very sparingly
and applied to the parts affected with a soft camel's-hair brush.
A SIMPLE FRECKLE LOTION
Light freckles may in a measure be controlled in some cases by
bathing the face frequently with a lotion composed of three grains of
borax in five drachms each of rose water and orange flower water.
LEMON JUICE FOR FRECKLES
Thirty grains of pulverized borax, dissolved in two and one-half ounces
of lemon juice, makes a lotion that is very effective in keeping freckles
in abeyance, where it agrees with the skin.
It should be applied at night after the face has been thoroughly
washed and rinsed.
HINTS ON THE HAIR
Tonic for the Falling Hair After Illness
FOR FALLING HAIR (No. i)
Vinegar of cantharides ... 1 ounce.
Cologne water 1 ounce.
Glycerine of borax 1 ounce.
Add distilled water until the whole amounts to six ounces. Rub
this mixture into the roots of the hair every night.
FOR FALLING HAIR (No. 2)
Aromatic vinegar 3 drachms.
Acetic acid 1 ounce.
Tincture of cantharides ... 1 ounce.
Lavender water 2 ounces.
Rose water 6 ounces.
This should be well rubbed in the roots three times a week at bed-
time, before brushing it,
520
HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
CURE FOR BALD SPOTS
Where the hair falls out in spots try the following wash
Distilled rose water
Aromatic vinegar
Pure glycerine
Tincture of nux vomica
Tincture of cantharides
180 grammes.
20 grammes.
10 grammes.
15 grammes.
10 grammes.
Mix thoroughly ; apply night and morning with friction.
FOR EARLY BALDNESS
The following lotion has produced a growth of hair upon bald
spots. It is not recommended when baldness is of long standing or
where the scalp has assumed the gloss or shine peculiar to the skin
after the actual death of the hair roots, but in young cases it has been
very successful : —
Sulphate of quinine
Tincture of cantharides
Tincture of rhatany
Spirits of lavender .
Glycerine
Alcohol
8 grains.
1^ drachms.
2^ drachms.
1 ounce.
^ ounce.
8 ounces.
Apply night and morning until the new growth is established.
FOR DRYNESS OF THE HAIR
Cocoanut oil 1^ ounces.
Lanolin 1 ounce.
Glycerine 4 drachms.
Tincture of jaborandi ... 4 drachms.
Rub the mixture well into the hair every night. It should remedy
the dryness.
TONIC FOR THE SCALP
Aromatic vinegar
Glycerine
Tincture of nux vomica
Tincture of cantharides
Rose water . . . .
drachms,
drachms.
2J drachms.
2 drachms.
6 drachms.
Use every night, rubbing it well into the scalp with a small sponge,
APPENDIX 521
A HAIR TONIC
Cologne 8 ounces.
Tincture of cantharides ... 1 ounce.
Oil of English lavender ... ^ drachm.
Oil of rosemary J drachm.
Apply to the roots of the hair once or twice a day. It is posi-
tively necessary that the scalp should be kept clean. Shampoo at least
once a week.
LOTION FOR DRY HAIR
Phenic acid ....
Tincture of nux vomica
Tincture of red cinchona
Tincture of cantharides .
Cologne
Sweet almond oil
2 grammes.
7^ grammes.
30 grammes.
2 grammes.
180 grammes.
60 prammes.
Apply to the roots of the hair with a soft sponge once or twice a
day. This lotion is especially good for very dry hair.
A FAMOUS HAxR TONIC
Twenty-five years ago a hair tonic called "Tricopherous" was used in
every city and town in the United States. Its originator made a for-
tune. The formula was long a secret. Tricopherous was made as
follows : —
Castor oil ^ pint.
Pure alcohol ^ pint.
Tincture of cantharides . . ^ ounce.
Oil of bergamot 2 drachms.
Color a pale pink with alkanet root.
TONIC FOR OILY HAIR
Witch hazel 2 ounces.
Alcohol 2 ounces.
Distilled water 1 ounce.
Resorcin 40 grains.
Apply every night, rubbing it thoroughly into the scalp.
522 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
TEA HAIR TONIC
Black tea as a basis for a hair tonic is successful in many cases.
It can be made so easily and costs so little that it is worth trying.
Formula : —
Bay rum 2 ounces.
Glycerine 2 ounces.
Alcohol 2 ounces.
Infusion of black tea .... 10 ounces.
Mix and perfume to suit.
The tea infusion should be made very strong, say an ounce of tea
to ten or twelve ounces of boiling water. Let it steep for twenty
minutes, then stand till cool; strain and add the other ingredients ;
apply with a soft Sponge to the roots of the hair. It will darken
blond hair.
KEROSENE HAIR WASH
Kerosene oil is unquestionably a tonic and a hair grower. The dis-
advantages are in its odor and the fact that it is so inflammable. The
way to use it is to rub the roots of the hair well at night with pure kero-
sene, which should be left on until the following morning. Then the
hair should be shampooed, and the kerosene application should be re-
peated about every fourth night. I do not advise kerosene, because its
use has been attended by so many accidents.
AN EXCELLENT SHAMPOO
Melt a cake of pure olive oil soap in a quart of boiling water. When
the soap is dissolved the result will be almost a jelly. Take of this jelly,
say, two large tablespoonfuls, and a small lump of common w^ashing soda
about the size of a filbert.
PASTES FOR CHAPPED HANDS
I
Ground barley, the white of an egg, one teaspoonful of glycerine
?ind one ounce of honey.
APPENDIX 523
II
Home-made soft soap .... ^ pound.
Olive oil 1 gill.
Mutton tallow 1 ounce.
After boiling these together, remove them from the fire before
adding
Spirits of wine ...... 1 gill.
Ambergris, or some other perfume, to an amount to suit the taste,
always being on your guard not to scent things too highly.
Ill
Refined pine tar ...... 1 teaspoonful.
Olive oil 1 pint.
Melt in water bath, scenting with rose water or some other per-
fume. This is a preparation which does not spoil.
The following two preparations, for use with cosmestic gloves, are
slightly more elaborate : —
I
Myrrh . 1 ounce.
Honey . 4 ounces.
Yellow wax . . . . . . . 2 ounces.
Rose water 6 ounces.
Melt the wax in a water bath, and add the myrrh to it while it
is hot. After beating them up together, add the honey and rose
water. Beat all up and add glycerine by the teaspoonful until you
secure a paste which will spread nicely. ,
II
Oil of sweet almonds .... 2 teaspoonfuls.
Glycerine 1 teaspoonful.
Rice flour 1 teaspoonful.
Fresh eggs ....... 2 yolks.
Rose water 1 ounce.
Tincture of benzoin .... 36 drops.
Beat up until the mixture forms a paste,
524 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
III
Another preparation for cosmetic gloves is made as follows : —
Fresh eggs 2 yolks.
Oil of sweet almonds ... 2 tablespoonfuls.
Rose water 30 grammes.
Tincture of benzoin ... 8 grammes.
Beat the yolks with the oil ; then add the rose water, and lastly the
tincture of benzoin.
BURNS
Boracic acid 1 drachm.
Glycerine 1 ounce.
Olive oil 1 ounce.
BURNS AND SCALDS
I
Bicarbonate of sodium .... 1 ounce.
Subnitrate of bismuth 1 ounce.
II
•
Creasote 30 drops.
Cocaine hydrochlorate 20 grains.
Lime water 1 pint.
Linseed oil 1 pint.
Ill
Solution of subacetate of lead . 2 ounces.
Tincture of opium 1 ounce.
Distilled witch hazel 1 ounce.
Household Remedies
baldness
I
Ointment of 10 per cent, oleate of mercury . ^ ouncQ.
Lanolin, or prepared suet ^ ounce.
Rub well into the scalp.
APPENDIX 525
II
Tincture of capsicum .... 2 drachms.
Water of ammonia 1 ounce.
Pilocarpine hydrochlorate ... 5 grains.
Cologne 3 ounces.
Use on the scalp twice a day.
Ill
Fluid extract of pilocarpine . . 1 ounce.
Soap liniment 3 ounces.
Rub thoroughly into the scalp night and morning.
BITES OF INSECTS AND ERUPTIONS
I
Beta-naphthol ...... 1 drachm.
Cologne ^ pint.
Apply to the irritated skin. This is suitable for alleviating the
smarting from the bites of any kind of insects.
II
Ointment of oleate of mercury . 1 ounce.
Camphor 10 grains.
Rub well into the skin.
Ill
Ipecacuanha 1 ounce.
Alcohol 1 ounce.
Apply to the skin.
THE EYES AND EYEBROWS
When the eyes have become irritated through excessive use, a
compress of fine linen wet with very cold water applied to them
and changed as often as it becomes warm will generally relieve
526 HARRIET HUBBARD AYER
them. If the irritation continue, the following lotion will probably
prove efficacious : —
Distilled water 1 kilogramme.
Rosemary flowers 30 grammes.
Steep the rosemary flowers in the water for a week, then strain,
and to the strained water add the following : —
Rose water 30 grammes.
Brandy ........ 30 grammes.
The Moorish women darken their eyebrows and eyelashes with a
dye made as follows : —
Gallnuts . 25 grammes.
Sulphate of iron 5 grammes.
Water 150 grammes.
Boil the gallnuts in the water for half an hour, strain through fine
muslin, and add to the strained water the five grains of the sulphate of
iron. Boil again until the liquor is reduced to two-thirds. Apply with
a sable pencil to the eyebrows and to the edge of the eyelid at the roots
of the lashes. The operation is to be repeated three times. The bottle
containing the dye should be tightly corked.
FOR SCANT EYEBROWS
Nothing so weakens the expression of a woman's face as scant,
scraggy eyebrows. Women so afflicted should use the following oint-
ment, which will strengthen the growth and improve their appearance : —
Red vaseline 2 ounces.
Tincture of cantharides ... ^ ounce.
Oil of lavender . * 15 drops.
Oil of rosemary 15 drops.
Mix thoroughly. Apply to the eyebrows with a tiny toothbrush
once a day until the growth is sufficiently stimulated. Then less often.
This ointment may be used for the eyelashes also. In this case
it should be very carefully applied. It will inflame the eyes, as any
oil will, if it get into them.
Whatever one may think of the propriety of clipping the eye-
lashes, there can be no two opinions as to the cutting of the eyebrows
or in any way subjecting them to the action of the scissors or razor.
APPENDIX 527
The beauty of the eyebrow consists in its being" smooth, glossy and
well defined ; in having little breadth vertically and in extending in a
graceful arched line over the eyes.
Cutting them ultimately destroys all these qualities by causing
them to grow coarse, stiff and irregular. The toilet of the eyebrow
is simple. A tiny brush, moistened with a very little vaseline, may be
passed over the eyebrow and the brush may be used to narrow the
form. This is all the care they require.
If eyebrows are too scanty the face is likely to look insipid,
while those of the bushy variety are not artistic, and tend to make
one look unduly fierce or masculine. The color should be a shade
darker than the hair.
The brows must never be rubbed or brushed except from the roots
to the ends. Women sometimes fall into the habit of rubbing them
the wrong way. After they have been treated in this manner it will
be almost impossible to get them to lie flat and smooth, and they soon
become short and bristly.
APPENDIX D
List of Medicated Soaps
Alum Soap, used in greasy seborrheas, pustular eczema, etc.
Amber Soap, used for enlarged glands, moles, warts, etc.
Arnica Soap, used for abrasions, wounds, bruises, boils, carbuncles,
sore nipples, etc.
Balsam Soap, used in indolent ulcers, etc.
Boro-Glyceride Soap, used for cleansing wounds and ulcers, and
in allaying inflammation, etc.
Camphor Soap, frequently used for pruritus, accompanying eczema,
chilblains, etc.
Carbolic Acid Soap, used in chronic eczema, etc.
Chamomile Soap, used for chafed surfaces, for seborrhea, for exces-
sive secretion of the skin, and foul-smelling sores.
Chamomile and Sulphur Soap, used in dry seborrhea, loss of hair,
etc.
Elder Flower Soap, used in sunburn, etc.
Ergot Soap, used in eczema, etc.
EucALYPTOL Soap, used for foul-smelling sores and ulcers, and also
for fetid perspiration.
Glycerine Soap, used for roughness of the skin, chapping, etc.
Iodide of Sulphur Soap, used for chronic ulcers, yellowish-brown
or blackish patches on the skin, freckles, etc.
Iodine Soap, used for scrofulous skin affections, etc.
Kino Soap, used for eczema, ulcers, etc.
(528)
APPENDIX 529
Lead Soap, used for boils, carbuncles, abrasions of the skin, bed-
sores, etc.
Napthol Soap, used for fetid perspiration, and in eczema, and for
bites of insects.
Napthol-Sulphue Soap, used for itching, bites of insects, eczema,
seborrhea and fetid perspiration.
Salicylic Acid Soap, used in thickening the skin on the palms of
the hands and soles of the feet, for pustular eczema, fetid perspiration,
foul wounds and sores, and for toilet purposes.
Sublimate or Bichloride of Mercury Soap, used in animal para-
sitic diseases, freckles, pigmentary spots on the skin, and effective in
relieving itching of the skin.
Sulphur Soap, used in rosacea, etc.
Tannin Soap, used for ulcers, for excessive perspiration,, oily sebor-
rhea, etc.
Tannin-Balsam Soap, used for wounds, ulcers, chilblains, etc.
Tar Soap, used in chronic eczema, etc.
Thymol Soap, used for ulcers, wounds and pustular eczema, etc.
Turpentine Soap. This soap is sometimes used under the name
of "Starkey's Soap." It is used for chilblains, etc.
WiNTERGREEN SoAP, uscd in eczema, etc.
Witch-Hazel Soap, used in eczema, for fetid perspiration, and in
loss of hair.
A.— 28
APPENDIX E
Table of Measures
1 pint contains 16 fluid ounces (4 gills).
1 ounce contains 8 fluid drachms (^ giU)*
1 tablespoonful contains about ^ fluid ounce.
1 teaspoonful contains about 1 fluid drachm.
1 teaspoonful is equal in volume to 45 drops of pure water (dis-
tilled) at 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
4 teaspoonfuls are equal to 1 tablespoonful or ^ fluid ounce.
16 tablespoonfuls are equal to ^ pint.
1 wineglassful (common size) contains 4 tablespoonfuls, or 2
fluid ounces.
1 teacupful is equal to 8 fluid ounces or 2 gills.
4 teacupfuls are equal to 1 quart.
1 common-sized tumbler holds about ^ pint.
1 gramme equals 15 and a fraction grains.
32 grammes equal 1 ounce.
125 grammes equal 4 ounces.
500 grammes equal 16 ounces.
(530)
MRS. AVER AND HER DAUGHTER, MARGARET
FROM VERY RECENT PHOTOGRAPH
This is tlie little daughter" shown on page 32.
(531)
j^mn]''
Abdomen, deep breathing for, 431 ; how to re-
duce, 353; average woman weak about the,
353.
Abscesses, produced from using bust developer,
253.
Acids, mineral, destructive to the nails, 283;
lactic, its formation and effect upon the
teeth, 231 ; acidity of the stomach destructive
to the complexion, 206; acetic, in removal of
smallpox marks, 168.
Afflictions, physical, not a part of God's work, 47.
Age, the first signs of, 249; lines of, 255;
every woman looks her; amatterof feeling,41.
Almond meal, formula for 280
Amandine, formula for, a delightful compound
for the toilet, 280.
Ambidextrousness, advisability of; how children
can be trained to, 279.
Animals, care we bestow upon 47
Arm, The bony, not necessary, 243 ; superfluous
hair on, 246 ; lumpy, not beautiful, 243 ; de-
scription of beautiful, 244; effect of scrubbing-
brush on ; lotion for red ; lotion for whitening,
246 ; treatment for, when unusually thin, 245 ;
rough skin made smooth on, 247 ; exercises to
develop flaccid, 248; to remove superfluous
hair from, 111; to bleach superfluous hair
upon, 112.
B
Baby, The, general rules for feeding, 385 ; first
thing to be done for the newborn, 380; treat-
ment of navel cord after it separates, 385;
newborn, need no artificial food; wet nurse
best substitute for mother; mistake for nurses
to feed newborn, 384; how to prepare cow's
milk for, 389 ; clothing for, 383 ; long, useless
dresses for, 384 ; care of a teething, 226 ; when
it should be weaned, 389 ; schedule of diet for,
when brought up by hand, 386-8; important
to know how to carry ; old-fashioned method
of pinning clothes abandoned; great care
should be devoted to dressing, 393 ; tempera-
ture of room and bath when bathing ; bathing
and dressing, 390; when, should commence to
walk ; accomplishments of ,396 ; model nursing
bottle for ; old-time nursing tube responsible
for death of; bottle-fed versus nursing; diet-
ary for, discussed, 395; vaseline takes the
place of powder for; doctors' opinion on ven-
tilation for; don't rock, to sleep, 394; weights
and measurements of, 397; when troubled
with weak eyes ; time should be allowed out
of doors, 396 ; good looks of; may be trained
into great physical beauty, 398 ; when, should
cut its teeth; increase of weight in ; weight of,
at birth, 397; care of teeth of, 403; remedy
for prickly heat; treatment for scald head,
404; how to mold outstanding ears, 398;
skeleton cap for outstanding ears, 401; many
young, have bumpy heads ; treatment for mis-
shapen heads, 402 ; how to mold flat noses,
401-2; how to dress the newborn, 380.
Bacteria multiply when assisted by conditions
of warmth, 231.
Bags, recipe for bran and almond meal .... 71
Baker, Martha (Appendix B), how she was
cured of obesity without drugs, 477 ; her di-
mensions at beginning of treatment; her
bill of fare, 478 ; her condition at the end of
her second week's treatment, 482; her meas-
urements at three periods during treatment,
484; her weights and measurements at
weekly periods during her treatment, 488;
exercise, 491 ; a letter from patient after her
cure, 492; a day's treatment of, 460; the
cure perfected, 469; reports of the jury who
examined her case ; her letter of thanks for
her cure, 470 ; another letter from the patient
one year later, 478.
Baldness, treatment for; lotion for; liniment
for, 526 ; cure for, spots ; lotion for early, 520.
(533)
534
GENERAL INDEX
Bath, beauty recipe for; gelatine recipe for;
the aristocracy's recipe for, 84; when to take
sea, 365 ; value of sea; sea, poor for the com-
plexion, 70; Turkish, when to take, 79; sul-
phur; the electric, a rejuvenator, 80; aro-
matic, for nervous women, 83; hard water
apt to make skin coarse, 69; toilet water for;
Hungary water for; aromatic vinegar for;
cautions concerning; when to take a cold, 75;
when to take as a stimulant, 72 ; luxuries per-
taining to, 71; time after eating for; the all-
over scrub; effects of quick, hot, and tepid;
to induce sleep; value of rain water for, 69;
few women know real meaning of; the great
secret of beauty; first of all the daily, 65;
temperature of, 66.
Battery, cost of 10-cell galvanic 83
Beauty, the value of cleanliness to, 142; the
national habit of pie-eating a foe to, 126;
will cause a man to fall in love, 85 ; the road
to, known to the Greeks and Romans, 65 ; the
price of perfect physical, 64; versus temper,
114 ; no moral danger in, 56 ; restoration of
youthful ; to prevent the destruction of ; the
maximum possibility for, 49 ; no royal road
to, 46; pursuit of, as old as the world, 40; its
opulent and splendid maturity; pursuit of,
owes its origin toman; crown of life's happi-
ness, 36; every woman desires to possess, 35;
we were created with a love of; woman the
highest expression of, 30 ; every vestige of,
goes from the woman who drinks; nothing
will so soon destroy, as dissipation, 325; ex-
cess is fatal to, 326; dependent upon health,
359; not possible without good health, 244;
youthful, of American girl, rarely outlives
third society season, 321; effect of dissipation
on, 327; types of, 265.
Beds should not be soft 372
Bergman, Miss, a skillful teacher of Swedish
movements, 354.
Bernhardt's, Sara, tribute to hot water; how
she retained her marvelous complexion, 75 ;
fascinating at fifty, 42.
Blackheads, first place of appearance of, 141;
the one way of getting rid of, 138 ; appearance
of, in the skin, 137 ; value of camel' s-hair face-
scrubbing brush in cases of, 140 ; treatment
previous to removal of; careful operation of
removing, 138; a Vienna dermatologist's
remedy for; treatment of obstinate cases, 139 ;
in the shell of the ear; how to remove, 220.
Blemishes, above and below the skin; warts and
moles; pigmentary and hairy; coloring mat-
ter which causes, 164; warts and the removal
of; extreme care necessary in application of
remedies for; danger of leaving marks in re-
moving, 165.
Body, symmetry of upper and lower; dispropor-
tion of, 262.
Borax, solution of, for teething babies .... 226
Botot, formula for the famous eau 229
Breath, formula for offensive, 223; time to take
a full, 343.
Breathing, a good system of, 331; first of all
should come proper, 328 ; deep, may become a
natural accompaniment; nine-tenths of our
colds can be cured by; few of us make a
practice of deep; ordinary, does not reach
the bottom of the lungs, 331 ; cultivate, in the
open air, 332.
Brush, for the flesh; every woman should
possess, 66 ; children should be taught the use
of the tooth, 226; camel' s-hair face-scrubbing,
description of, where obtained, 66.
Bunions, cause of; how to treat, 308; how to
prevent, 309; pointed-toed shoes a maker of,
310.
Burns, formula to relieve 524
Bust, treatment for increasing the; to make
firm the, 254 ; abnormal development of the ;
the padded, of twenty-five years ago, 252;
how to decrease a too fleshy, 253.
Calisthenics, meaning of, 244 ; books on, for use
of dumb-bells, 336.
Cathay skin food 421
Catherine Lane (Appendix A ) — A human
wreck restored to health and beauty without
drugs or stimulants of any kind, 456.
Chalk, camphorated, formula for 226
Character, how to read, from the features, 405 ;
not fair to judge of, because of one feature,
406.
Charms, preservation of, 46 ; that keep a woman
queen of her realm, 266.
Chest, The, movements for developing, 344;
training for girls with flat, 345 ; expansion,
simple methods to develop, 349.
Chilblains, cause of, a treatment for, 288 ; treat-
ment by electricity, 166.
Child, the right to be well born of every, 379.
Chin, The, receding indicates weak will power;
a telltale feature, 410; the square, a good
sign; a round and well- formed, denotes a
sweet temper, 413; premature double, 251.
Cleanliness, personal; will preserve a man's
affection, 85; next to Godliness, 65.
Churchill's, Lady Randolph, graceful neck and
head, 250.
Collars, linen and pretty necks, 254; marks
about the throat, 243; the close-fitting re-
stricts circulation, 256; the high stiff, destruc-
tive to pretty throats, 255..
Comeliness recommends virtue 46
GENERAL INDEX
535
Complexion, the American girl's poor, 125; for
brown spots on the ; what to use when cold
cream does not agree with the, 517, cucumbers
for the, 514; for refining coarse; excellent
preparation for the, 511 ; a simple recipe for,
509; skin food for, without lanolin, 512;
effects of lacing on, 270 ; efficacy of hot cloths
in the treatment of; Austrian women noted
for their fine, 156 ; wretchedness of a woman
with a poor, 129; general ignorance about
treatment of, 151; of red-haired girls, 55;
summer trying to the ; to preserve the, against
sun and wind, 190.
Consumption, symptoms of 254
Corns, causes of; to remove soft; to relieve
pain of; pernicious effect of acids in treat-
ment of ; a cure for, 306 ; a French plaster for,
307.
Corsets, what they will do for a woman's figure,
not necessary for slight, willowy women, 275 ;
well constructed a blessing; nonsense written
about, 272; mistake American women make
in buying "the coffin," which makes a trav-
esty of the human form, 276.
Cosmetics, shall we use, and when, 436 ; a liquid
rouge, 440; formula for rouge; formula for a
white face-powder, 439; a liquid whitener;
the atrocious "made-up" woman, 438; use
of, among our grandmammas, 436 ; the man
who objects to, 436 ; the time when a woman
should use; indiscriminate painting of the
face, hair dyeing, or bleaching; woman should
always be the judge in use of; attacks on, 435 ;
unbecoming to youthful faces, 437.
Cramps, what to do when attacked by 265
Cuticle, affections of, treatment by galvanic
current; blemishes cured by absorption, 166.
D
Dandruff, the cause of, 101; the effect of poor
diet and bad ventilation on ; formula to keep
from accumulating; scurf or furfura; Dr.
Vigier's remedy for; parasites; substances
for removing, 102.
Dentifrice, formula for famous, 229.
Dentistry, preventive measures of, 232 ; we live
in the age of wonderful, 222; beautiful scien-
tific, of to-day, 228; enamel inlays taking
the place of gold fillings, 234; enamel of the
teeth worn away by incorrect brushing, 226;
features restored by cosmetic, 235.
Depilatories, great care advised in use of, 247.
Digestion, walking an aid to; low spirits ruin;
laughter will aid, 420.
Dowdiness, danger of drifting into, not confined
to any station, 50. the description of, 51.
Dress, reforms and their fads, 272; consolation
in being well dressed, 48; for gymnastics must
be loose, 343.
Drowning, how to rescue the '. 366
Dyspepsia, a remedy for nervous 419
Ear, description of a perfect; the projecting,
and how to cure; mothers and nurses to
blame for deformed ; erysipelas developed by
piercing the; the patent skeleton cap for out-
standing, 216; treatment for deafness, 208;
eczema of the, and treatment, 217; consult
an aurist for continuous deafness; children
subject to running from, 218; blackheads in
the shell of, and how to expel them; living
insects in the, and how to destroy, 220;
treatment for hardened cerumen in the;
toilet of the, 219; a significant feature; de-
scription of the aesthetic; what a flabby, long,
indicates ; a steadfast, courageous, described,
416.
Earache, children liable to the, 217 ; lotion for
the, 218, Duval's cure; successful formula
for, 219.
Eczema, symptoms of, its cause and its result,
145; remedies for, 147; a pomade for, 148;
Broco formula for; affections of the eyelids
by, and a lotion for, 149; camphorated soap
for, 150; treatment by electricity, 166; of
the ear, treatment for, 217.
Electricity for treatment of rheumatism; won-
derful in facial treatments; important in
removing wrinkles ; shocks are blunders re-
sulting from ignorance; in treatment for
neuralgia, 83; treatment of baldness by, 166.
Electrolysis, treatment by, in acne, 166; one
case where everv hair root was killed by, 110 ;
expense of, 108; birthmarks amenable to,
166; a remedy for warts, moles, and other
pigmentary disturbances, 165.
Emaciation, diet for, described; plenty of fresh
air to cure: helpful suggestions to cure; milk
diet and exercise for; suitable clothing for,
418 ; what to eat, 421 ; the right sort of exer-
cise for, 422; a good tonic for; what might
be drunk for, 423; feminine beauty not com-
patible with ; tendency to; the inherited kind
of, 417 ; nervous dyspepsia a frequent accom-
paniment of, 419.
Exercise, nothing can take the place of daily,
327; with dumb-bells; for neck, 335; breath-
ing for; fresh air for; for stooped and anae-
mic girls, 332-, health brought by, 359; with-
out apparatus, 340; must be taken in well
ventilated room, 343; salient points concern-
ing, 344; to be performed at home in one's
bedroom, 345; necessity of persistent, 353.
Eyebrows, beauty requirements of the; treat-
ment for scanty; toilet of the, 527: how the
Moorish women darken their; propriety of
clipping the, 526; a woman's, when they
536
GENERAL INDEX
indicate sentimentality, 416; what they indi-
cate, 416 ; how to darken the; electrolysis for
removing superfluous hairs of the, 205; toilet
of the; when hair falls out of the; formula
for a grower for; characteristics of the, 204;
the Greek; heavy thick; drooping; character-
istics of the, 203; when to darken; contrast
between eyelashes and, 65; a bleach for, 98.
Eyelashes, practice of clipping the, 199; that
were white and are now a pretty brown, 39.
Eyelids, granulated, formula for 199
Eyes, treatment for irritated ; lotion for in-
flamed, 525; rosemary lotion for inflamed,
526 , healthy and well-formed, 198 ; wash for
inflamed; formula for weak; crossed and
squinting easily curable, 199; irritated by
cold, wash for; inflammation of the; formulas,
200; state of a woman's soul expressed by,
197; changing color of, impossible; dull
made lustrous; unnatural brilliancy of, 198;
a telltale of nature, 197; no feature is more
self-assertive than large and round; a sign
of amiability; protruding, sign of poor mem-
ory, 414; of the coquette, 415; brightener,
formula for, 199.
Face, a contented mind is reflected in the, 375;
description of a woman's weatherbeaten,
243; uncleanliness the chief cause of an
ugly, 142; cause of lines on, 157: story told
by lines on, 158 ; a lotion to use after steam-
ing, 156; poor results of spasmodic cleaning
of; value of friction on, 155; how to free
from all superficial impurities, 153 ; amusing
experiences of teaching a class to wash, 151;
proper steaming of, 155; grimacing ruins
the expression of, 227.
Figure, the so-called new 271
Flesh, to make firm and smooth 79
Foot, description of a truly beautiful, 301; the
twentieth-century kind of, 299; "Magic
Cures" for the, should be avoided, 315; the
martyrdom of improper care of the, 304; age
when a girl's foot is largest; small, con-
sidered a mark of aristocracy, but not intel-
lect, 300; mental superiority indicated by a
long hand and, 301; high French heels and
a distorted, 302; Du Maurier's ideal, 303;
the Cinderella, pnsse de mode; the length of
a woman's skirt as a guide to the size of her;
smallness of, a test of beauty a generation
ago, 298; evil of narrow shoes for the, 305;
advice for the curve of the, 304; treatment
for burning feet, 316; remedies for tender,
315; improvement in; gear of past decade,
310; profuse perspiration of the, and remedy
for, 308 ; patent leather bad for health of the,
307; coldness of, 308; evils of Chinese shoes
on the American; long era of tyranny of
French heel, 299; Trilby feet that will not
stand test of camera, 300; plain, flat, com-
mon sense heel, 302; how to prevent ingrow-
ing nails, 305; danger of cutting nails to the
quick; ingrowing nails can be cured, 316;
treatment of nerves, all of which start from
the, 315.
Forehead, receding, sign of mental weakness,
406.
Formalin, is a powerful germicide; application
of, 232.
Freckles, several remedies for; two classes of,
130; not pretty; of red-haired women, 55;
heroic remedy for; a simple lotion for; lemon
juice for, 519; for obstinate, 518.
G
Girl, training for the flat-chested, 345; lotion
for, who tans; summer, regimen for beauty,
191; English, far-famed complexion and
how it is attained ; summer, what to do for
her red face ; summer, fresh air not injurious
to her, if skin be properly protected, 192.
Goitre, electricity as a cure for 83
Grandmother, old type of, gone; no longer as-
sociated with age; of to-day; fulfillment of
splendid womanhood, 45.
Grecian bend and tilters 252
Grooming, nothing to do with make-up, 57;
opposed to paints and powder, 58; the
dowdy's utter disregard of, 50.
Gums, wash for receding 229
Gymnastics, Swedish movements explained, 339.
H
Hair, a correct shampoo for the; how to
cleanse, and scalp, 103; how to brush, 121;
a curline formula for, not endorsed by the
author, but the best known to her ; artificial
methods of curling, and many so-called curl-
ing fluids, 115 ; the kindness of Dame Nature
in bestowing of, 113 ; preparaiion of, before
retiring; do not twist; remedy for falling
out of, after fever, 105 ; a remedy for falling,
the Jabarondi tonic for falling, 104; foreign
remedies for falling, 106 ; curled to last three
weeks, 116; beautiful red, 55; inability of
bleaching the roots of; once bleached yellow,
question how to keep it so; misery of
bleached, 95 ; to turn bleached blonde to its
original color, 98; a uniform color when
using artificial preparations in the bleaching
of; impracticable to keep, bleached one
shade; ammonia should not be used on, 97;
a harmless bleach for, 96; Turkish method
of applying henna leaves to, 100; a once
famous dye for; a dye for, 99; desire to
change black, to silver white ; recipes given,
GENERAL INDEX
537
but not endorsed; inheritance of prematurely
gray; how to brighten and add lustre to
muddy brown, 98; scrupulous cleanliness,
ventilation, and friction the essential needs
of; poor scalp circulation causes falling of;
effect of heredity, temperament, and general
health on; actions of the sebaceous glands
and their effect on ; directions for washing,
89; causes of unhealthy; harmful use of so-
called restorers and tonics ; massage of the
scalp beneficial in stopping the falling out
of; effect of derangement of digestive organs
on; coloring matters of; its mineral ingredi-
ents, and changes with age, 90; chemical
demonstrations in pigment of, 91; golden-
haired beauties the praised of poets and
painters for centuries; bondage of artificially
acquired and maintained golden, 92; tea
tonic for, 522.
Hand, Balzac's views concerning the; descrip-
tion of the artistic, 278; importance of the
early care of the; habits destructive to
beauty of the; proper way to wash the; treat-
ment when soap irritates the, 279 ; lotion for
chapped or rough ; causes of chapped ; treat-
ment for badly chapped, 281; a wash for
itching of; disturbance of the blood will
cause itching of, 282 ; a remedy for whiten-
ing; honey and almond paste for whitening;
the formula of our grandmothers for dainty,
290; popular lotion for whitening of the;
washes for the, 291; how to keep soft, 292;
a delicate emollient for tender, 288; a for-
mula for rough ; not difficult to have tender,
pretty, 289 ; a formula for excessive moisture
of, 294; loose joints and shrinking flesh on,
295; a good whitener for; how to clean
grimed, 296 ; a lotion to be used in the
washing of; care to be used in washing of;
don't wear tight gloves; a lady can be told
by the condition of the tips of her fingers;
aging of, hastened by neglect, 295; they
show the ravages of time, 294 ; rubber gloves
at night, 297; pastes for chapped, 522-3.
Happiness of family dependent on woman. 57
Hay fever, causes and treatment for 207
Head, how to hold the 250
Heart, trained to sensible but never violent
exercise, 259.
Helen of Troy's beauty at forty-six 41
Heredity, the legacy of scrofula and the laws of
transmission, 146.
Herpes, treatment of, by electricity 166
Honey paste, an excellent compound for whiten-
ing the hands, 281.
Hubbard, The Mother, a penitentiary offense,
52.
Hydrozone, Marchand's treatment by. ... . 207
Indigestion, formula for, which causes a red
face after eating, 419.
Influenza, causes and treatment for 207
Insomnia, chronic, caused by immoderate use of
tea and coffee, 326.
Instruments, substitute for the cuticle knife;
list of necessary manicure ; cost of manicure,
283.
J
Jaw, transformation of a protruding, into a
symmetrical feature, 224.
Jewelry, when not to wear 375
K
Kerosene, as a hair wash 522
L
Lacing, tight, will sometimes j^roduce red nose,
207.
Lane, Catherine, case of, 456-96; general
treatment of, 460; one day's treatment of,
466-7; portrait of, at beginning of treatment,
472; use of compressed oxygen in treatment
of (ills.), 473; letters of thanks from, regard-
ing success of treatment, 472, 475-6 ; re-
ports of jury regarding results of treatment
of, 470-1.
Lehman, Mme., a living proof of the advantages
of voice culture, 249.
L'Enclos, Ninon de, heart affair at eighty, 41.
Ling, movements explained 339
Lips, description of the, 221; formula for
chapped, 230 ; biting the, 227.
Liquid, bath, recipe for 72
Lotion, astringent, formula for, 248; simple
summer, formula for, 194.
Luxuries, mistaken ideas of 66
M
Maids, the high-collared, trimmest and crispest,
256.
Man, when he selects a wife, 406 ; when badly
cheated, 51.
Manicuring, origin of ; first performed for King
Louis Philippe ; implements required for the
French system, 283; how to be your own; the
value of pumice stone in; taboo liquid
bleaches for whitening the nails; do not use
sharp instruments for, 292; almond meal
necessary for; use of rose paste in; proper
method of, 293.
Marchesi, Mme., the famous singing teacher;
her beautiful throat at seventy, 249.
Marks, port wine, and birth 166
Massage, a process which originated with
Greeks thousands of , years ago; a throat
coaxed into a demand for exercise by, 181;
to counteract the effects of the stiif collar,
256; to remove a droop of the eyelid by, 177;
538
GENERAL INDEX
operation on the temporal muscle; developing
of the predominating muscle of the face by;
a remedy for shrinking glands, emaciating
fatty tissues and sunken cheeks; invigorating
and rebuilding tissues by; injurious if given
improperly, 178; how to fill out hollow cheeks
by, 181; cream or skin food to anoint fingers
during treatment by ; movements for remov-
ing lines and wrinkles from the brow; ema-
ciation causing disfigurement remedied by,
177; to relieve a nervous headache, 121;
restoration of sunken lines by; study of an-
atomy necessary to knowledge of; nonsense
of claiming many methods of; only one way,
173; home treatment by oneself; the deriva-
tion of; study of subject necessary before
treating oneself by, 174; the only treatment
for drooping corners of the mouth, 228.
Maternity,the effect of,upon the girlish figure, 36,
• Medici, Venus de, a perfect type of feminine
beauty, 270.
Melancholia, lean women inclined to 421
Milk, best artificial, 385; how to sterilize cow's,
389; best implements to sterilize cow's, 390.
Millennium, when man has nothing more dis-
creditable on his record than a stained eye-
brow, 40.
Moles, how to remove 164
Monin, authority for the Kisch treatment, 253.
Mother, the slatternly demoralizing 48
INloth patches, our pretended resignation to, 47,
Mouth, description of a perfect; influences of
the, known and freely admitted, 221; " Show
me his mouth," 197; a beautiful; the key-
stone for beauty building; disease fatal to
the beauty of teeth, 222 ; cure for a slobber-
ing ; bad habit of making, 227 ; formula for
myrrh and borax wash for the, 230; beware
of the rosebud; of truthfulness and justice;
the conceited, has a short upper lip, 406.
Muscles, exercise for developing the 248
N
Nsevi, birthmarks, how to remove 166
Nails, care of the; biting of the, 279; use of a
stick of orange wood in caring for the ; bad
method of manicuring the, 284; moons on
the, indications of physical strength; press
the skin around the, gently away after wash-
ing, 293; bad effects of using acids on; Sitts'
logical suggestions of treatment of; perni-
cious practice of cutting selvage from the,
284; vinegar and lemon juice recommended
for the, 287; what the white flecks mean on
the, 293; two formulas for making powder
for the, 294; to remove spots from the, 296 ;
how to obtain the graceful oval form of the;
daily care necessary for the ; causes of sore
and unsightly fingers and "cracking " of sel-
vage about the, 287.
Narcotics, the most awful of all the demons
that conspire to destroy a woman, 325.
Nature provides for the baby, 384; skimpy to
some of us, 39.
Neck and throat, relaxed muscles of, painful to
manipulate; relaxed condition of, a sign of
age, 181.
Neck, movements for reducing double chin, 257;
effect of sea bathing on the, 251; its full
splendor after thirty; girlish beauty of a,
youthful, 248; description of a perfect, 249;
of a high-bred woman; of woman of lower
origin; bands; present fashion ruinous to
beauty of the; result of using metal trim-
mings about the, 250.
Negrier, Dr., of Tangiers, his discovery in
treatment of nose bleed, 214.
Nerves, cause of perspiration of the hands, 287.
Nose, formula for red, 207; description of the
perfect ; crooked can unquestionably be made
straight, 211; shiny and oily, treatment for,
210; red, treatment for; formula for itching
of the; Augagnem's remedy for; catarrh of
the, treatment for, 209; daily care of the,
will lengthen and straighten ; the pug, not
attractive, and unnecessary, 212; how to
arrest bleeding from the; the Greek, de-
scribed; aquiline, of the conqueror, 413;
Roman, a good type; swelling of the; treat-
ment for the, 414; cruelty denoted by some,
413; when the most perfect modeled is a
trial; the red blotchy, or shiny, 206; red,
sullenly accepted, 47.
o
Obesity, diet for, 426; no woman need suffer
from, 29; some flesh-reducing methods; kind
of exercise recommended for, 426; scientific
treatment of, 425; regulating the diet for;
normal condition of health, 429; causes of;
the age at which one begins to get stout,
428; suitable clothing for, 438; rub your
arms and cheeks each day, 432; bodily exer-
cise of great importance, 431; the cure of,
not an empty fad ; a tendency of stout people
to eat and sleep, 433; methods of Dr. Swen-
inger, Say, Ebstein, and Saulsbury, 427.
Ointment, carbolated, formula 217
Opium, one of the ingredients of sleeping
draught a form of, 325.
Ovarian troubles, electric baths often a specific
for, 83.
Oxygen, for consumption, inhalation of com-
pressed, 254.
P
Pads, a warning word, no dressmaker of renown
will at present countenance them, 252;
responsible for many diseases; consumption
breeders, 253.
GENERAL INDEX
539
Patti, Adelina, a woman who will never be old,
42.
Perfume, the delicate fragrance of the violet;
formula for lavender water, Florida water,
and West India bay rum, 446; those ob-
tained from animals, Frangipani a composite,
445 ; a formula for extract essence of rose,
444; formula for cologne water, 451; a for-
mula for making rose sachet powder, violet,
and heliotrope; sachet powder made from
flowers, 448 ; lavender water to prevent con-
tagious maladies ; aromatic essences that will
destroy germs ; danger lurks in flower scents ;
fastidious women and their selection of, 454;
the abuse of, potpourri ; how to make; vanilla
bean basis for heliotrope, 453; formula for
"fictitious" violet water, formula for ex-
tract of pink, 452; formula for lavender
smelling salts, 451; formula for making in-
cense; formula for sweet-scented pastilles
for burning, 450 ; sachet powder for scenting,
peau d'Espagne, of white rose, a dress closet
sachet, 447 ; every flower claimed to be rep-
resented in; only half a dozen flowers which
really yield ; use of, in Roman church ; oils
which were called precious in the days of
Moses, 441; a method of making your own,
443.
Personal, a letter, written from private hospital,
323 ; my very pleasant task to offer sugges-
tions, 49.
Perspiration, abnormal condition of; a lotion
for the, of the hands, 165.
Physical culture, for reducing flesh, 350; several
good books on ; handbook of light gymnastics,
336; dumb-bell exercise described, 343.
Pictures in this book all from living subjects,
33.
Pimples, most repulsive of skin ailments, 142; a
lotion for, 148.
Plainness, no virtue in 46
Playfair, celebrated doctor, discusses infant
feeding, 385.
Poitiers, Diane de, a siren at fifty-six 41
Pomade, a method for making 443
R
Recamier, Julie, lovely at sixty 41
Respiration, how to produce artificial 367
Ringworm, to cure 518
Rooms, often unfit for the purpose to which
they are put, 371.
Rose fever, causes and treatment for 207
Running, grace and health gained by 358
s
Scalp, a tonic for, 520; keeping healthy, 103;
how to prevent baldness of the ; massage of
the; directions for performing the operation;
the movements, etc., shown by illustrations;
nourishment and ventilation necessary for
the imperfect circulation of the, 121.
Scars, left by wound or ulcer; treatment of, 167;
vaccination, 248.
Scrubbing brushes, my respect for them .... 49
Shoes, proper care of, 310 ; high-heeled French,
252; how to get a fit, 315; avoid short, 316.
Shoulders of perfect loveliness described; square
not pretty nor womanly, 250; no woman can
have any style with stoop; how to cure round,
346.
Silver, nitrate of, in treatment for removal of
smallpox scars, 168.
Sirens, waist, measures of historic 271
Sitts, his method of manicuring proper, 283;
the original manicure anecdotes concerning
Mme., descendant of, 282.
Skin, formula for removing yellow stains from,
257.
Skin, to soften the face, 513; blotchy, 514; en-
larged pores, 518; neglect of soap and water
creates blackheads in the, 66; tendency to
dry; soap paste, formula for; when drawn;
cream and lotion for, 193; when coarse and
inclined to be rough; formula for lotion, 245-
lotion for slight irritation of .the, 247; starch
used in some laundries will affect the; change
of texture in the, 256 ; a lecture by the author
on the, 144; hideous cases of diseases of the,
and the cause ; effect of American climate on
the; constant process in change in the, 143;
value of pure soap on the; value of proper
treatment by men of the, 140; small percent-
age of healthy, 142; yellow spots on the, and
remedy for, 136; food to nourish the cuticle,
349 ; moth patches on the, and remedy for,
136 ; pigmentary stains of the, 132 ; formula
of a celebrated French beauty for the clear-
ing of the; effect of diet on the, 128; out-
break of Spring pimples on the; the removal
of blemishes from the, 127 ; twenty million
dollars annually expended for the improve-
ment of the ; only forty per cent, free from
blemishes of the, 125 ; a nourishing food for
the; remarkable functions of the, 174; effect
of nitrate of silver on the ; dangerous experi-
ments of amateurs on the, 169; derogatory
effect of soap on, 154; a formula for a bad,
149; loaded with solid matters, 66; a good
lotion for, 508; for relieving irritation of the,
510; formula for relaxed; formula for shiny;
lotion for an oily, 512; a dry and scaly, 513.
Sleep, how to; time which should be given to;
woman's looks affected by want of, 371; pro-
per position for, 373 ; every working woman
owes herself a room apart for, 377.
Smallpox, marks of, how to remove 168
540
GENERAL INDEX
Soap, formula for rosebud, 518; list and usage
of medicated, 528; compositions of a pure,
75; must be pure, 66; proper cost of pure, 69.
Sores, cold; formula for ointment for 230
Spinach, a spring medicine and beautifier . 196
Strawberry, paste, to refresh the complexion;
formula for; -water, in high repute as a cos-
metic; formula for, 195; -vinegar, a delicious
and stimulating lotion, formula for, 196;
-cream, formula for; delicious basis for cos-
metics, 194; toilet vinegar of, recipe, 79.
Sugar, most effective of all f atteners ...... 420
Sunburn, formula for, 135; how to prevent and
how to cure; spring winds and sun resulting
in, 133 ; good cream from cucumbers ; recipe
for, 191.
Superfluous hair, disfigurement from; the
" moustache," 107; causes of, still a mystery,
108; one of the best-known formulas for the
removal of. 111; the old-fashioned tweezer
method of removing, 112.
Swedish, exercises must be begun moderately,
353; system of gymnastics; description of,
339.
Swimming, all girls should learn the art of, 360 ;
how to learn without a master, 361 ; instruc-
tions in, 362.
Swimming, floating the first step in the art of,
361.
Sylphs that are really known about 270
T
Tan, a formula for 135
Teeth, hardening of the structure of, under
the enamel, 232; missing ones fatal to a
woman's looks, 237; description of trans-
plantation of, 244; description of the im-
plantation of, 238; description of replanta-
tion of, 242; formula for powder for, 377; an
excellent powder, formula for, 226; to be
minus a front, was a brand of degradation,
229 ; artificial, which really do defy detection,
222; far too precious to tamper with;
straightening of, description of one child's
torture; much depends on the care of baby's,
225 ; crowded first show evidence, 231 ; cor-
recting irregularities of; caution as to ex-
traction of, 232; filling of, without display
of gold, 234; requisites for perfect artificial;
natural effects produced by artificial; mis-
shapen; how they can be corrected; stained
with iron, how to bring back to natural
color, 235; correction of the, in adults; how
a crowded condition of, may be overcome,
233; artificial, require an adept, 236; a tell-
tale of a woman's age, 237; folly of extract-
ing sound, 241; meaning of uneven; the girl
with the happy-go-lucky; irregular, indicate
poorly-balanced nature, 41 ; when they indi-
cate uncertain temper; long and narrow,
indicate ill health; when they show incon-
stancy, 409; a violet dentifrice for, 378.
Temperance, without it a woman's beauty will
never last beyond the early thirties, 40.
Theories, "I do not advance theories, but
demonstrate facts in what I say," 29.
Throat, how to maintain the firmness and beauty
of the; how to develop thin and scrawny,
249; beauty-destroying creases in the fair,
255; formula for discolored, 251; exercises
for, 357; circles around the, 250.
Time, its impress on the face and form; the
hygienic method of defying, 48.
Toilet remedies (Appendix C ), witch-hazel
cream, 499; aromatic vinegar, 500; for mos-
quito stings; for ivy poison; orange-flower
lotion, 500; French milk of roses; cucumber
cream; for blackheads, 501; lotion for re-
moving freckles; cure for parasites; cure for
confluent acne; a remedy for boils; skin
food, 502 ; marshmallow lotions for distended
veins; to remove moth patches; to whiten
the hands; a remedy for baldness, 503; po-
made for moist skin; soap julep for shampoo;
fruit vinegar for the toilet ; Oriental method
for darkening the eyelids; simple tincture
of benzoin, 504 ; aromatic vinegar, imitation
lily of the valley, jelly of roses, 505; home-
made bay rum, honey of violets, spirits of
camphor, Florida water, cologne water, 506 ;
strawberry vinegar, orange-flower water,
Esprit de rose, chapped lips, delicate face-
powder, 507.
Toothache, a cure for the 230
Transformation of plain women into " daughters
of the gods," 65.
u
Ugliness in girl or woman 52
Untidiness, nothing so fatal to a girl's chances,
55.
V
Veins, distended; treatment of the; other forms
of treatment; electricity safest, 166; red, on
the nose; treatment for, 212.
Venus, the bracelet of 255
Vertigo, what to do when attacked in the water
by, 366.
Vinegar milk, when to use, formula for. . . 194
w
Waist, revival of the wasp, 271; squeezing
period of the ; the cultivated, of the Venus
de Medici, 269 ; slender, is pretty ; square, is
deforming, 272.
Wales, The Prince of, and his manicure . . . 282
Walk, exercise for attainment of a graceful, 353.
Windburn, remedy for, 134; another formula
for, 135.
Wisdom, to be as lovely as one can 56
SPECIAL INDEX OF RECIPES AND REMEDIES
541
Wives, mistaken when they allow themselves to
become dowdy, 51 ; who are careless are de-
moralizing, 48.
Woman, every, can make herself a picture;
necessity at every age for scrupulous care
and cleanliness, 52 ; her face reflects her life,
interesting case cited, 321; warned against
the use of the glass cup, 235; measurements
of the perfect, 258; the fat, is repellent, 417;
let us not abuse the freedom of the new, 244;
description of a new, 243; her chances ruined
by decayed teeth, 224; nervous, hysterical,
of to-day, 271; who laces herself into the
shape of an hour-glass; tightly laced who
imagines herself sylphlike, 270; as old as
she looks, 41 ; no necessity for her growing
old, 42; patience taken to convince her; ac-
countable to herself, 46; happiest when
charming, 48; the dowdy should never marry,
50; grave mistake of neglecting her looks;
danger of being penny-wise, 51 ; the drudge
and dowd a degenerate, 52; description of a
well-groomed, 57; a beautiful grandmother;
danger of losing her husband's love, 60; an
awakening at five and forty; old idea of mid-
dle age, 59; can get back youth she has lost,
64; who by design makes herself conspicuous,
96; elocution or singing recommended for
narrow-chested, 423; who are slaves to the
peroxide bottle, 92; of sixty-five to-day as
compared to the woman of forty a genera-
tion ago, 108; pays middle-age, to be well
groomed, 58; over fifty may recover the ap-
pearance of youth; a statement intended for
all under thirty, 45; types of, who defy her,
42; beautiful, have made history; the beauti-
ful, most powerful, 46; may call a halt on
time; can undo ravages of past, 49; happier
and better if they keep their good looks;
young and beautiful at fifty, 45; schedule
of her good and bad points, 262; German
writer's requirements for the perfect, 261;
the emancipation of, 299; of business; the
toilet of, 376; beauty and health for; appro-
priate dress of the business, 374 ; night toilet
of the business, 376.
Wrinkles, methods of removing, 237; a lotion
for preventing, 432; no woman need have,
29 ; made by laughing not a cause for distress,
177; a technical definition of, 157; massage
after Swedish system only reliable method
of removing, 170 ; linen bands for the treat-
ment of, 163; a pomade and lotion for the
removal of, 163-4 ; age at which one should
expect; character reading by, 161; a formula
for; when they may be properly considered
premature • a so-called new French cure for,
162.
SPECIAL INDEX OF RECIPES AND REMEDIES
Acne confluent, cure for, 502; muUuscum,
treatment for, 141 .
Almond meal for the hands 280
Almond paste for the hands 290
Alum eyewash 200
Amandine for the hands 280
Antiseptic tooth wash 223
Aromatic bath for nervous women 83
Aromatic vinegar 500-5
Arms, The, lotions for whitening 245-6
Aurora lotion 164
Babies, diet for, when brought up by hand. 386
Bad breath, pastilles for 224
Band treatment for wrinkles 162-3
Baldness, simple remedies for 524-5
Bald spots, remedies for 503, 520
Bath, the aromatic, 209; for nervous women, 83;
aromatic vinegar for, 500; gelatine, 84; liquid,
72; of beauty; of the aristocracy, 84; per-
fume for; toilet water for, 76.
Bay rum, how to make at home 506
Beauty cream for the skin 194
Benzoin, simple tincture of 504
Birthmarks, treatment for 166
Blackheads, formulas for treatment, 511; new
remedies for, 139, 501; obstinate, treatment
for, 139.
Boils, applications to scatter 502
Bran and almond meal bags 71
Brandy eye wash 200
Breasts, The, treatment to reduce 253
Burns and scalds, treatment of 524
Bunions, treatment for 319
Bust, The, formula to make firm 254
Camphor, spirits of 506
Carbolated ointment for the ear 217
Castor-oil hair tonic 105
Chapped lips, cure for 507
Chilblains, glycerine jelly for, 288; treatment
for, 319.
542
SPECIAL INDEX OF RECIPES AND REMEDIES
Cold sores, ointment for 230
Cologne water, 451; common , .... 506
Complexion, The, lotion for 509, 511
Corns, prescriptions for. , 319
Creme de pistache 510
Cucumber cream 191-2, 501
Cucumbers, use of, as a complexion beautifier,
514.
Curliue, formula for 115
Curling fluid, permanent 118
Dandruff, lotion for, 101; preventive of, 103;
shampoo for, 103.
Delcroix's poudre subtile 247
Dentifrice (Eau Botot) 229
Depilatories 110-2
Duval's earache cure 219
Earache, Duval's cure for, 219; lotions for. 218
Ear, The, carbolated ointment for, 217; to soften
cerumen in, 219.
Eau Botot, dentifrice 229
Eczema, Broco formula for, 149; camphorated
soap for, 150; chronic, mixture for, 149;
lotions for, 148; of the eyelids, lotion for,
149; of the scalp, remedy for, 104; pomade
for, 148.
Esprit de Rose 507
Eyelids, eczema of, 149; to darken the 504
Eye brightener 199
Eyebrows, ointment for 204
Eye salve 200
Eyes and eyebrows, formulas for treatment of,
525-7.
Eyewash, 199; from tea leaves, 199; of alum;
of brandy; of witch hazel; of zinc, 200.
Extract of pink 452
Face bleach, formula for 136
Face powder, 439; delicate 507
Face, The, liquid whitener for, 438; liquid
rouge for, 440; steaming, lotion after, 156.
Falling hair, Lassar's treatment for, 106;
Moniji's remedy for, 106; tonic for, 104.
Feet, The, powder for profuse perspiration of
319.
Fever blisters, ointment for 230
Florida water 446, 506
Fossati cream for pimples 127
Freckles, antiphelic remedy for removing, 502;
cream for, 131; hydrozone and glycozone
treatment for, 133 ; lotion for, 131 ; obstinate,
treatment for, 518; obstinate, formula for
removing; ointment for, 132; remedy for;
simple lotion for; use of lemon juice in
eradicating, 519.
French milk of roses 499
Fruit vinegar 504
Gelatine bath 84
Glycerine jelly for chilblains 288
Hair, dry, lotion for, 521; dry, treatment for,
520; dye, 99; falling, remedy for, 104-5;
falling, tonic for, 519; oily, tonic for, 521;
tea tonic for, 522; tonics for, 521; wash,
kerosene, 522.
Hands, chapped, pastes for, 522-4; almond
meal for, 280; almond paste for, 290; bran
and oatmeal water for, 294; cocoa cream
cerate for, 291; emollient for, 288; honey
paste for, 281; lotion for (Vigier), 281; lotion
for whitening, 290; paste for, 280, 288;
remedy for profuse perspiration of, 287;
skin-feeding ointment for, 289 ; formula for
whitening, 503; wash for itching, 282.
Heliotrope, sachet powder 452
Henna leaves for the hair 99-100
Honey paste for the hands, 281; for the skin,
193, 251.
Hungary water for the bath 76
Incense, formula for 450
Infants, general rules for feeding 385
Insects, bites of, remedies for 525
Ivy, poisoning from, to cure 500
Jabarondi tonic for falling hair 104
Jelly of roses 505
Kisch treatment to reduce the breasts 253
Lavender smelling salts, 451; toilet water. 446
Lily of the Valley, imitation 505
Lip salve 230
Liver spots, lotion for 517
Marshmallow lotion for distended veins . . . 501
Milk vinegar 194
Moles, how to remove 164
Mosquito stings, cure for 500
Moth patches, application for, 136; to remove,
503.
Mouthwash, of myrrh and borax 230
Nail powders 294
Neck, The, to remove collar marks from . . 257
Ninon de L'Enclos, beautifier 509-10
Nose, bleeding from, to stop, 213; oily, treat-
ment for, 210; red, treatment for, 206-7;
shiny, treatment for, 210.
Ointment for freckles 132
Orange-flower lotion, 500 ; water 507
'm
^333
SPECIAL INDEX OF RECIPES AND REMEDIES
543
Palms, lotion for moist 294
Parasites, cure for, 502; remedy for 102
Pastilles for burning, formula for 450
Peroxide of hydrogen treatment 96-8
Pimples, Fossati cream for 127
Pommade Grecque 163
Pores enlarged, treatment for 518
Red nose, syrups for, 209; treatment for. 206-7
Ringworm, cure for 518
Rose, smelling salts, 415; sachet powder, 448;
extract essence of, 444.
Roses, milk of, 509; jelly of 505
Rouge, formula for 439
Sachet powder, rose, 448; violet, 449; heliotrope,
452.
Salivation, formula for too abundant 227
Salve for inflamed eyes 200
Scald head, treatment of 404
Scalp, eczema of, 104; method of cleaning, 103;
tonic for, 520.
Scars, treatment for removal 167
Shampoo, recipe for, 522 ; soap julep for . . . 504
Skin, The, astringent lotion for, 248; astringent
pomade for, 504; blotchy, wash for, 514;
dry and scaly, wash for, 134 ; dry and scaly,
lotion for, 513 ; eruptions, remedies for, 525 ;
healing lotions for, 135; honey paste for,
251 ; lotion for irritated, 247; lotion to soften,
513; oily, formulas for treatment of, 512-3;
powder to relieve irritation of, 510; relaxed,
formula for treatment of; shiny, treat-
ment of, 512; to remove yellow spots on, 136;
food, 102, 502; food for, without lanolin, 512;
lotion, 508.
Smallpox marks, treatment of 511
Smelling salts, rose, 451 ; lavender 451
Soaps, medicated, list of, 528-9; rosebud.. 516
Spermaceti, emulsion of 508
Strawberry cream 194-5
Strawberry paste, 195; vinegar, 196, 507; water,
195.
Sulphur and molasses 503
Sunburn, cucumber cream for 191-2
Tan, lotion for 191
Tea eyewash 199
Toilet lotion, 508; vinegar of strawberries, 79;
water to make flesh smooth, 79.
Toothache cure 230
Tooth powders, 266-7, 377 ; wash, antiseptic for
oifensive breath, 223; washes for reducing
gums, 229.
Veins, distended, lotion for 501
Venus cream for chapped face 134
Vigier's remedy for parasites 102
Violet dentifrice, 378; water, fictitious, 452;
honey of, 506; sachet powder, 449.
Warts, treatment for 164
West India bay rum 446
Witch hazel eyewash, 200; cream 499
Wrinkles, lotion for preventing, 432 ; lotion for
removing, 516-7; new cures for, 162, 514;
premature, lotion for, 517; recipe for ob-
literating, 511.
Zinc eyewash.
200
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