pathy, interest, or intelligence, but do not let it roll, or vibrate, or turn upward to show the white below the pupil. It will be pleasing to note how soon moderate daily practice, and a rigid self-control over this organ, will improve and beautify the whole face.

THE EAR AND THE SENSE OF HEARING.

THE FORM AND CARE OF THE EAR.

N a horse, an ass, or a dog, we naturally look to the

IN

ear as the most expressive feature of the animal. It is less significant in man, but still has more influence on the appearance than we usually attribute to it. While it should be distinctly visible from in front, it should not project from the head, and in its form it should present agreeable curves, and not be angular or pointed.

Thorough cleanliness is the most important rule regarding it. Too often in hasty toilettes this is overlooked. The wax should be removed twice a week with a cure-oreille, or ear pick, of ivory, steel, or tortoise shell, but care should be had not to employ the least violence. If the wax is hardened, warm water containing a few drops of sulphuric ether should be injected with an ear syringe at night.

A growth of bristly hairs in the ears is very disfigur

ing. They should be removed in the mode to be described in the chapter on hair. By this means they are eradicated and without pain.

When, as occasionally happens, a spider or other insect enters the ear, there is no occasion for alarm, and no efforts whatever should be made to extract it. The treatment is to fill the ear at once with sweet oil, which is at hand in every house. This destroys the intruder, and the extraction must be left to the physician, as there is great danger to the delicate internal organs of hearing from rough handling.

Some persons have a habit of wearing cotton in their ears to protect them against earache. This is objectionable for many reasons. It dulls the hearing, alters the secretion of wax, changes the expression of the organ, and gives a sickly look.

When the ear obstinately insists on standing out from the head in grown persons, it is next to impossible to prevent it. In children, it is much easier, and therefore every mother should see to it that the children's caps, their bonnet strings, and the folds of the hair, do not impress this unsightly direction on the cartilage. Moreover, it becomes in this respect the duty of parents to forbid school teachers from pulling, boxing, or twisting the ears of their scholars, as is a custom in many schools. Such violence often imprints a permanent unseemly shape, which is the source of much secret mental pain in after years.

MISSHAPEN EARS.

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The color of the ear should be as light as that of the surrounding flesh, or verge slightly on the pink. But it is not uncommon to see ears with a constant redness, very inconsistent with the demands of cosmetic art. Sometimes this arises from injuries, such as frequent pinching or pulling, more frequently it is the unpleasant memento of some sleigh ride or other exposure to the cold. The tips of the ear are readily frost-bitten, and then acquire this heightened, unhealthy hue. It may be concealed by dusting with French chalk, but it is better to remedy it by washing the parts evening and morning with a lotion made by dissolving a teaspoonful of alum and a teaspoonful of borax in half a pint of rose-water, and two tablespoonfuls of tincture of benzoin.

Injuries not unfrequently mar the symmetry of the ear, and there are various malformations to which it is subject. Most of these can be partly or quite restored by the resources of cosmetic surgery, and no one should hesitate to seek such assistance. It is not worth while to detail at length what these various malformations are, as they are only too readily recognized. Even when the ear is in part or altogether absent, the case is not desperate. An "artificial ear" can be made of vulcanized rubber, or other material, tinted the color of the flesh, and attached to the side of the head with such deftness that its character will escape every ordinary eye. In all cases where there

is any defect in the form, color, or position of the ear, it behooves a person to study with especial care the arrangement of the hair best suited to conceal that misfortune.

PIERCING THE EAR, AND EARRINGS.

In England the custom of wearing earrings or pendants has fallen considerably into disuse in the best circles during the last ten years, but with us the large majority of young ladies adhere to it. The operation of piercing the ears which they undergo is too often left to the jeweller or some friend to perform. The result is that it is nothing very uncommon to find it productive of troublesome consequences. A learned professor of surgery states, in a recent work, that he has seen five cases where large and troublesome tumors in the lobe of the ear were caused in this way, and we could easily quote more than one instance recorded in medical literature where even death resulted.

It is wiser, therefore, to have it performed by a medical man, who will take into account the constitution of the girl, the state of her health, and the season of the year, so as to avoid every possible danger. He will also complete it almost without pain by means of some apparatus for suspending sensation in the part.

The proper procedure is to mark the exact spot with a pen, choosing it near the middle of the lobe.