THE SKIN AND HAIR. 77 



feel assured that the conditions of arrangement are altogether 

 incompatible with the exercise of any magnetic influence. 



Beyond combing and brushing, what are the best expe- 

 dients for hair-cleaning ? In man there is nothing so good as 

 soap-and-water lather ; but the plan cannot be recommended 

 for ladies. The alkali of soap is not congenial to the gloss 

 and beauty of female hair ; moreover, to some extent, alka- 

 line contact affects the colouring-matter, and changes its tint. 

 Men are above or beside these considerations, but they should 

 be regarded by ladies. 



Glycerine and lime-juice, so called, is not glycerine and 

 lime-juice at all. It is merely scented oil and lime-water. 

 Glycerine and rose-water is much better. The advantage of 

 glycerine is, that it imparts to the hair a soft silky brilliancy ; 

 the so-called brilliantine, in point of fact, which gentlemen 

 vain young ones use for their whiskers and moustaches is 

 only glycerine scented. For bandoline, nothing is better 

 perhaps nothing so good as a very small fragment of gum- 

 tragacanth dissolved in water and perfumed. The fragment 

 must be very small, otherwise the solution will turn the 

 accroche-cceur into a veritable horn, uncomfortable to wear 

 and ungraceful to look at. 



People who use pomades should be very careful that they 

 do not apply injurious colouring-matters to the hair. The 

 fashion these some years past has come in of using yellow or 

 straw-coloured pomades. They are elegant to look at, and so 

 long as the yellow tint is imparted by palm-oil, as it should 

 be, they are, sanitarily considered, unobjectionable. I fear, 

 however, that in many instances the peculiar tint of yellow 

 so much desiderated is given by incorporation with some in- 

 jurious metallic compound. Roseate pomades are never, on 

 account of their colouring-matter, objectionable, the tint being 

 always imparted by alkanet root, which is wholly innocuous. 



The oleaginous composition of pomades varies greatly. 

 Spermaceti, and almost any animal oil or fat except mutton- 



