MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
79 
|5.00 for two ounces. This, too, is sold to cure tuberculosis in the last 
stages. 
The ones I have already spoken of have been oil the market for some 
time, but there is a beauty preparation which has been at its heightli 
the past year known as “Mercolized Wax.” I am told that here in Ann 
Arbor there are as many of the men students using it ns there are 
Co-eds. Some of the reading notices say in speaking of powder and 
paint, “How foolish to seek artificial beauty of this sort, obnoxious from 
artistic and moral standpoint, when it is so easy to obtain a truly 
natural complexion by the use of ordinary mercolized wax.” The only 
real way to improve a bad complexion is to actually remove it and let 
the young, fresh, beautiful skin beneath have a chance.” This prepara- 
tion proves to be an ointment containing 11% zinc oxide and 8.5% am- 
moniated mercury and sells for $.75 an ounce. The cost of manufacture 
is not more than $.75 per pound. Ammoniated mercury is considered 
as a rather dangerous and irritating drug if left in contact with the 
skin very long or applied very frequently. It is often used in skin 
diseases such as “Barber Itch,” eczema, etc. Most of these prepara- 
tions are harmless, except in price, however, “Mercolized Wax” can not 
be classed with the harmless. Another of the harmful kind is “Othine,” 
two aud y 2 . ounces of which sells for $2.00. This preparation is guaran- 
teed to remove freckles or money refunded and it will do it too, but it 
does it by taking the skin along and of course the freckles return too. 
This preparation we have found to be ammoniated mercury and bismuth. 
There is in Ann Arbor at the present time an agent for Robt. Blumers 
Egg Saver. It is a quarter pound package selling for $.25 and is 
claimed to be the equivalent of four dozen eggs. We have examined 
this and several other so-called “egg savers.” Some are corn starch 
colored with an aniline dye, to give the yellow appearance, others are 
baking powder, containing of course starch, and one or two have been 
found which contain casein, an attempt you see to furnish something to 
supply the albumin. Why you can go down here anywhere and buy 
ten ounces of baking powder for ten cents and sour milk is not very 
expensive. 
I wish to call your attention to just one more compound on the 
market Sal-Vet. You may have seen the large add in the evening paper 
lately. It gives the endorsement of many Michigan farmers. It is a 
stock conditioner and worm destroyer and as they say, “will destroy 
stomach and intestinal parasites and prevents infection from all para- 
sites that enter the stomach.” Sal-Vet they say is a wonderful medi- 
cated salt and they tell you to feed no salt. A very good reason for 
that for Sal-Vet is 93.5% common, ordinary salt with small amounts 
of iron sulphate and charcoal with indeterminable amounts of gentian, 
quassia and sulphur or in other words about enough to cover its iden- 
tity. It sells for $5.00 a hundred pounds, rather expensive it seems to 
me for common salt and especially for stock. If we can believe it to 
be used as extensively as they claim, then is there any wonder the price 
of meat is high? 
Ann Arbor, Michigan. 
