SPOTS ON THE SKIN.

217

have started a violent opposition to it, and may check or suppress it. But after all, the fashion is a harmless one, and is not irrational. As we have said, it is founded on acknowledged laws of taste, and nothing from a hygienic point of view is to be urged against it. We do not plead for it, but what ground is there for a philippic against it?

DISCOLORATIONS OF THE SKIN.

Leaving these cosmetic arts, which we may call the "tricks of the trade," we pass on to cosmetic science, which occupies itself with the nobler study of remedying and removing those defects which the arts only seek to conceal.

An important branch of it is that which treats of the various discolorations of the skin, all of which detract more or less from beauty. They are well nigh as numerous as the colors of the spectrum, and are of very diverse origin. It may be said of them as Malvolio says of greatness: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." So some of these beauty-blemishes are born with persons, others are acquired by want of care, and others are forced upon the most careful.

Some of them are peculiar to certain periods of life and physical conditions. Brown patches not unfrequently arise during pregnancy, and disappear after confinement. A red flush, temporary in character, oc

casionally marks the change of life. Pallor and slight blueness are sometimes recurrent with the periodical illness. Such discolorations cannot be amended, and the best that can be done is to conceal them when social life requires it.

Another large class are characteristic of disease, and can only be removed by a judiciously regulated and often protracted course of treatment. Here the family physician should be called in, who, if he is a wise man, will not depreciate the importance of even so small a sign as an altered complexion, for this is sometimes the only sign and forerunner of serious maladies.

"The green sickness," so common in young girls, derives its name from the peculiar greenish hue of the complexion. Another not less familiar complaint is jaundice, in which the skin takes on a sickly yellow. In a less degree, this same tint is frequently perceptible in persons who are "bilious," or who suffer from dyspepsia. A light bluish hue, most strongly marked on the lips, often betrays disease or defective action of the heart, the seat of life. A lead-colored tinge points to disease of the spleen.

There is a rare complaint named after Dr. Addison, who first explained it, in which the whole surface of the body gradually changes to a tawny brown or mahogany color; and another, not so rare, which indeed is not infrequent, where dark red spots appear in

A BOON OF VENUS.

219

great numbers under the skin, and hence it is called in medical Latin purpura, the purples.

own cases.

In any of these maladies, it is worse than useless for persons without medical education to undertake their We mention them as those in which we shall not suggest home treatment. They demand the services of the professional healer, and are beyond the reach of cosmetic art. Life itself is threatened. But there are many smaller troubles which imperil the charms, for which every woman can be her own prescriber, and these we shall proceed to inform her about.

EXCESSIVE WHITENESS OR PALENESS OF THE SKIN.

A white skin is a boon of Venus, but pallor we associate with sickness and debility, which are nowise akin to personal beauty. It is just as easy for the skin to be too white, as too red or too brown.

Some are troubled with this paleness from childhood, in others it results from failing health. In both cases the blood is at fault. It demands more carbon to form pigment, more iron wherewith to fabricate in nature's wondrous laboratory, the roses that bloom in the cheeks of beauty. For, strange as it may seem, it is these familiar and homely substances, charcoal and iron, which the magic wand of Nature transforms into delicate dyes, and spreads out on the satin skin

of the brunette, or mixes in the crimson current to produce the mantling blush, the ruby lip, and the

"Streaks of red that mingle there,

Such as are on a Catherine pear,

The side that 's next the sun."

But it is not enough to adopt such a diet, or to commence a course of such medicines as shall introduce into the system these indispensable materials in the form best adapted to be readily taken up by the blood. This is, indeed, essential, but, beyond this, the surface of the body must be stimulated by regular and prolonged frictions.

We all know that if we rub a part it will soon become red. This is because the minute blood vessels in the true skin are brought into increased activity, and carry a larger amount of the crimson fluid. Let them frequently be so excited, and this habit will become their nature, and a permanent florid hue will result. There is no need to explain with what advantage we can apply what we learn from this simple fact to the improvement of the looks, nor to dilate on the value of friction when it is so readily perceived.

Still another step must be taken, and this for most people the hardest of all. Professor Max Müller, the philologist, has a favorite theory that the degeneration of languages is owing to the universal laziness of the human race. People are too indolent to pronounce the whole of a word or phrase, so they clip it to

THE LAZINESS OF MANKIND.

221 the briefest dimensions; as, for example, when in conversation we catch ourselves saying, "I'd 'a bought it," for "I would have bought it." So, in another sphere, physicians notice that if a medicine is prescribed, it is gulped with alacrity; if a diet is ordered, it is observed with no inordinate grumbling; but when it comes to exercise, regular, vigorous, daily exercise, it is the hardest task in the world to persuade any body to take it.

Yet it is this which is so essential to increase the rapidity and volume of the circulation, to aid the digestion, to give roundness to the form, and to dash the blood in rapid and ruddy waves, seventy, eighty, ninety a minute, all over the body. If the local circulation of the skin is increased by friction, so must the general circulation be improved by regular exercise.

Let us sum up in a few words the prescription for those who, without suffering from any disease, are yet disfigured by a colorless skin, pale lips, and a general want of red blood: A diet, or dose, or both, well supplied with carbon and iron, a lukewarm bath (75° to 85°) every morning, followed by thorough friction with a rough towel, active exercise in the sun and air, and the avoidance of alkaline and astringent soaps and washes.

"But the diet-what diet do you mean?

we to eat charcoal and iron-dirty things?"

How are

Not, certainly, in the shape of soot or spikes, but as