$22 DISEASES CLASS HI. 1. 2. 12. 



strongly to be recommended; and finally the cultivation of sci- 

 ence, as of chemistry, natural philosophy, natural history, which 

 supplies an inexhaustible source of pleasurable novelty, and re- 

 lieves ennui by the exertions it occasions. 



In many of these cases, when irksomeness of life has been the 

 ostensible cause of suicide, there has probably existed a maniacal 

 hallucination, a painful idea, which the patient has concealed 

 even to his dying hour; except where the mania has evidently 

 arisen from hereditary or acquired disease of the membranous or 

 glandular parts of the system. 



12. Pulchritudinis desiderium. The loss of beauty, either by 

 disease, as by the small-pox, or by age, as life advances, is some- 

 times painfully felt by ladies, who have been much flattered on 

 account of it There is a curious case of this kind related in Le 

 Sage's Bachelor of Salamanca, which is too nicely described to 

 be totally imaginary. 



In this situation, some ladies apply to what are termed cosme- 

 tics under various names, which crowd the newspapers. Of these 

 the white has destroyed the health of thousands; a calx, or ma- 

 gistery, of bismuth is supposed to be sold in the shops for this 

 purpose; but it is either, I am informed, in part or entirely white 

 lead or cerussa. The pernicious effects of the external use of 

 those saturnine applications are spoken of in gutta rosea, Class 

 II. 1. 4. 6. The real calx of bismuth would probably have the 

 same ill effect. As the red paint is prepared from cochineal, 

 which is an animal body, less if any injury arises from its use, as 

 It only lies on the skin like other filth. 



The tan of the skin occasioned by the sun may be removed by 

 lemon juice evaporated by the fire to half its original quantity, 

 or by diluted marine acid; which cleans the cuticle, by eroding 

 its surface, but requires much caution in the application; the ma- 

 rine acid must be diluted with water, and then put upon the 

 hand or face, after a second of time; as soon as the tan disappears, 

 the part must be washed with a wet towel and much warm 

 water. Freckles lie too deep for this operation, nor are they in 

 general removable by a blister, as I once experienced. See Class 

 I. 2.2.9. 



It is probable, that those materials which stain silk, or ivory, 

 might be used to stain the cuticle, or hair, permanently; as they 

 are all animal substances. But I do not know, that any trials of 

 this kind have been made on the skin. I endeavoured in vain to 

 whiten the back of my hand by marine acid oxygenated by man- 

 ganese, which so instantly whitens cotton. 



The cure, therefore, must be sought from moral writers, and 



