78 COSMETICS. 



fat may be employed in their composition. I believe the 

 very best oleaginous hair-application consists of a mixture of 

 castor-oil and alcohol, two parts by measure of the former to 

 one of the latter, the whole perfumed according to taste. The 

 circumstance should here be mentioned that castor-oil is the 

 only oil admitting of this treatment ; if, for example, it were 

 attempted to combine olive-oil with alcohol, the operator would 

 soon find he had taken trouble in vain. Between the two no 

 union would ensue ; and the same remark applies to every oil, 

 with the exception of castor-oil. 



The hair of human beings, as well as of animals, holds sul- 

 phur in its composition, and retains this element obstinately. 

 Thus, if a scrap of flannel a thousand times, or even ten thou- 

 sand times, washed be taken and analysed for sulphur, this 

 element will invariably be found. As will be seen hereafter, 

 the theory of the action of a certain class of hair-dyes turns 

 upon this sulphurous presence. It is a property of sulphur 

 and more especially of a certain sulphur-containing gas 

 to turn several metallic combinations black. Lead is one of 

 the metals in this category, and accordingly lead has formed 

 the basis of more than one hair-dye. Bismuth is another of 

 these metals, and silver another; the blackening function of 

 silver salts, however, when used as hair-dyes, is not wholly 

 referable to this sulphurous reaction. 



Poets have*often expatiated on the harmonies of Nature ; 

 and whateverjhas been the theme of poetic thought and dic- 

 tion from the earliest times is almost certain to be true. 

 Nothing can be more adverse to the truth than to regard 

 poetry, after] the manner of some, as the wild outpourings in 

 language of lawless day-dreams void of order or coherence or 

 reference to fact. Eather should the poet's lucubrations be 

 looked upon as the crystallised essence of truths made to him 

 apparent by the light within, and demonstrable hereafter by 

 the slower mechanism of reason and induction. Thus has it 

 come about in the fulness of time that the harmonies of 



