If an extra detergent quality is desired, 4 ounces of sodium carbonate may be added, and the quantity of soap may be reduced. Paste thus made will attack grease, etc., more readily, but it is harder on the skin.

Removing Inground Dirt.—

Dissolve the boric acid in a sufficient quantity of water; mix the albumen and glycerine and pass through a silk strainer. Finally, mix the two fluids and add the residue of water.

Every time the hands are washed, dry on a towel, and then moisten them lightly but thoroughly with the liquid, and dry on a soft towel without rubbing. At night, on retiring, apply the mixture and wipe slightly or just enough to take up superfluous liquid; or, better still, sleep in a pair of cotton gloves.

Toilet Creams:

Beat the almonds in a smooth mortar until as much divided as their nature will admit; then gradually add water in very small quantities, continuing the beating until a smooth paste is obtained; add to this, gradually, one pint of water, stirring well all the time. Strain the resulting emulsion without pressure through a cotton cloth previously well washed to remove all foreign matter. If new, the cloth will contain starch, etc., which must be removed. Add, through the strainer, enough water to bring the measure of the strained liquid to 1 pint. While this operation is going on let the soap be shaved into thin ribbons, and melted, with enough water to cover it, over a very gentle fire or on a water bath. When fluid add the wax and spermaceti in large pieces, so as to allow them to melt slowly, and thereby better effect union with the soap. Stir occasionally. When all is melted place the soapy mixture in a mortar, run into it slowly the emulsion, blending the two all the while with the pestle. Care must be taken not to add the emulsion faster than it can be incorporated with the soap. Lastly add the alcohol in which the perfumes have been previously dissolved, in the same manner, using great care.

This preparation is troublesome to make and rather expensive, and it is perhaps no better for the purpose than glycerine. The mistake is often made of applying the latter too freely, its “stickiness” being unpleasant, and it is {236} best to dilute it largely with water. Such a lotion may be made by mixing

Plain water may, of course, be used as the diluent, but a slightly perfumed preparation is generally considered more desirable. The perfume may easily be obtained by dissolving a very small proportion of handkerchief “extract” or some essential oil in the glycerine, and then mixing with plain water.

Beat until creamy: not until cold. When the cream begins to thicken add a few drops of oil of rose. Only the finest almond oil should be used. Be careful in weighing the wax and spermaceti. These precautions will insure a good product.

Melt the wax and spermaceti, add the oil of sweet almonds, then beat in the glycerine, tincture of benzoin, and oil of rose geranium. When all are incorporated to a smooth, creamy mass, pour into molds.

Make an emulsion of the almonds with water so as to obtain 16 fluidounces of product, straining through cotton which has previously been washed to remove starch. Dissolve the soap with the aid of heat in the necessary amount of water to form a liquid, add the wax and spermaceti, continue the heat until the latter is melted, transfer to a mortar, and incorporate the almond emulsion slowly with constant stirring until all has been added and a smooth cream has been formed. Finally, add the two volatile oils.

V.—Melt, at moderate heat,

Melt together and while still hot add, with constant stirring, 1 part of sodium carbonate dissolved in 79 parts of hot water. Stir until cold. Perfume to the taste.

Heat the ointment, oil, and solution of soda together, stirring constantly until an emulsion or saponaceous mixture is {237} formed. Then warm together the glycerine, acid, and mucilage and about 30 fluidounces of water; mix with the emulsion, stir until cold, and add the remainder of the water. Lastly, add the volatile oils.

The rose-water ointment used should be the “cold cream” of the United States Pharmacopœia.

Melt the spermaceti and wax, add the sweet almond oil, incorporate the water in which the borax has previously been dissolved, and finally add the oils of bergamot, rose, and bitter almond.

Mix the honey with the soap in a mortar, and add enough liquor potassa (about 1 fluidrachm) to produce a nice cream. Mix the volatile oils and balsam with the sweet almond oil, mix this with the cream, and continue the trituration until thoroughly mixed. Finally add, if desired, enough carmine solution to impart a rose tint.

Add for each pound of the cream 5 drops of etheric oil of bitter almonds, and 3 drops tincture of ambra. Proceed as in making cold cream.

The following also makes a fine cream:

Melt on a water bath the spermaceti and wax, add the oil (which should be fresh), and pour the whole into a slightly warmed mortar, under constant and lively stirring, to prevent granulation. Continue the trituration until the mass has a white, creamy appearance, and is about the consistence of butter at ordinary temperature. Add, little by little, under constant stirring, the orange-flower water and glycerine mixed, and finally the perfume as before. Continue the stirring for 15 or 20 minutes, then immediately put into containers.

Chappine Cream.—

Macerate the quince seed in water, strain, add the glycerine and lead acetate, previously dissolved in sufficient water; flavor with jockey club or orange essence.

Cucumber Creams.—

Melt together the wax, spermaceti, and lard, and infuse in the liquid the cucumbers previously grated. Allow to cool, stirring well; let stand a day, remelt, strain and again stir the “cream” until cold.

Glycerine Creams.—

Melt, on the water bath, the oil, wax, and glycerine together, remove and as the mass cools down add the perfume in sufficient quantity to make a creamy mass. {238}

Dissolve the boric acid in a quart of water and in this solution macerate the quince seed for 3 hours; then strain. Heat together the starch and the glycerine until the starch granules are broken, and mix with this the carbolic acid. Dissolve the oils and the extract of rose in the alcohol, and add to the quince-seed mucilage; then mix all together, strain, and add water enough to make the product weigh 64 ounces.

Heat the milk until it curdles and allow it to stand 12 hours. Strain it through cheese cloth and allow it to stand again for 12 hours. Mix in the salts and glycerine and triturate in a mortar, finally adding the odors and coloring if wanted. The curdled milk must be entirely free from water to avoid separation. If the milk will not curdle fast enough the addition of 1 ounce of water ammonia to a gallon will hasten it. Take a gallon of milk, add 1 ounce ammonia water, heat (not boil), allow to stand 24 hours, and no trouble will be found in forming a good base for the cream.

IV.—This is offered as a substitute for cucumber cream for toilet uses. Melt 15 parts, by weight, of gelatin in hot water containing 15 parts, by weight, of boracic acid as well as 150 parts, by weight, of glycerine; the total amount of water used should not exceed 300 parts, by weight. It may be perfumed or not.

Lanolin Creams.—

Perfume with about 15 drops of ionone or 20 drops of synthetic ylang-ylang.

Preparations which have been introduced years ago for the care of the skin and complexion are the glycerine gelées, which have the advantage over lanolin that they go further, but present the drawback of not being so quickly absorbed by the skin. These products are filled either into glasses or into tubes. The latter way is preferable and is more and more adopted, owing to the convenience of handling.

A good recipe for such a gelée is the following:

Moisten white tragacanth powder, 50 parts, with glycerine, 200 parts, and spirit of wine, 100 parts, and shake with a suitable amount of perfume; then quickly mix and shake with warm distilled water, 650 parts.

A transparent slime will form immediately which can be drawn off at once.

Mucilage Creams.—

Boil the starch in the carrageen mucilage, add the boric acid and the glycerine. Let cool, and add the cologne water.

Instead of the cologne water any extracts may be used. Lilac and ylang-ylang are recommended.

Witch-hazel Creams.—

Dissolve the boric acid in 16 ounces of the witch-hazel extract, macerate the quince seed in the solution for 3 hours, strain, add the glycerine, carbolic acid, and glycerite, and mix well. Mix the alcohol, cologne water, lavender oil, and mucilages, incorporate with the previous mixture, and add enough witch-hazel extract to bring to the measure of 32 fluidounces.

Macerate the quince seed in the hot water; add the glycerine and witch-hazel, in which the boric acid has been previously dissolved; let the mixture stand for 2 days, stirring occasionally; strain and add the perfume.

Skin Cream For Collapsible Tubes.—

Melt the vaseline, wax, and spermaceti together, and while cooling incorporate the subchloride of bismuth (in warm mortar). Dissolve the oils in the alcohol, and add to the fatty mixture, stirring all until uniform and cold. In cold weather the quantities of wax and spermaceti may be reduced.

Face Cream Without Grease.—

Macerate the quince seed in half of the boiling water, with frequent agitations, for 2 hours and 30 minutes, then strain off. In the residue of the boiling water dissolve the borax and boric acid, add the glycerine and the perfume, the latter dissolved in the alcohol. Now add, little by little, the colate of quince seed, under constant agitation, which should be kept up for 5 minutes after the last portion of the colate is added.

Toilet Milks:

Cucumber Milk.—

To the melted cerate in a hot water bath add the soap and stir well, keeping up the heat until perfectly mixed. Add 8 ounces of borax to 1 gallon of boiling water, and pour gradually into the hot melted soap and cerate; add the remainder of the borax and hot water, then the heated juice and glycerine, and lastly the alcohol. Shake well while cooling, set aside for 48 hours, and siphon off any water that may separate. Shake well, and repeat after standing again if necessary; then perfume.

Glycerine Milk.—

Rub up 80 parts of the starch with the glycerine, then put the mixture on the steam bath and heat, under continuous stirring, until it forms a jellylike mass. Remove from the bath and stir in the remainder of the starch. Finally, add the water and tincture and stir till homogeneous.

Lanolin Toilet Milk.—

Dissolve the soap in 2 fluidounces of warm water, also mix the lanolin with 2 fluidounces of warm water; then incorporate the two with each other, finally adding the tincture. The latter may be replaced by 90 grains of powdered borax.

Sunburn And Freckle Remedies.

I.—Apply over the affected skin a solution of corrosive sublimate, 1 in 500, or, if the patient can stand it, 1 in 300, morning and evening, and for the night apply emplastrum hydrargyri compositum to the spots. In the morning remove the plaster and all remnants of it by rubbing fresh butter or cold cream over the spots.

For redness of the skin apply each other day zinc oxide ointment or ointment of bismuth subnitrate.

II.—Besnier recommends removal of the mercurial ointment with green soap, and the use, at night, of an ointment composed of vaseline and Vigo’s plaster (emplastrum hydrargyri compositum), in equal parts. In the morning wash off with soap and warm water, and apply the following:

Mix, and make an ointment.

III.—Leloir has found the following of service. Clean the affected part with green soap or with alcohol, and then apply several coats of the following:

Mix. Apply with a camel’s-hair pencil.

When the application dries thoroughly, go over it with a layer of traumaticine. This application will loosen itself in several days, when the process should be repeated.

IV.—When the skin is only slightly discolored use a pomade of salicylic acid, or apply the following:

V.—When there is need for a more complicated treatment, the following is used:

Rub up to an emulsion in a porcelain capsule. Filter and add, drop by drop, and under constant stirring, 5 grams of tincture of benzoin. Finally mix the two solutions, adding the second to the first.

This preparation is applied with a sponge, on retiring, to the affected places, and allowed to dry on.

VI.—According to Brocq the following should be penciled over the affected spots:

VII.—Other external remedies that may be used are lactic acid diluted with 3 volumes of water, applied with a glass rod; dilute nitric acid, and, finally, peroxide of hydrogen, which last is a very powerful agent. Should it cause too much inflammation, the latter may be assuaged by using an ointment of zinc oxide or bismuth subnitrate—or one may use the following:

Freckle Remedies.—

Saponify the oil with the lead acetate; add the rose water, and follow with the tinctures.

Mix and dissolve. Apply with a camel’s-hair pencil at night.

This mixture is allowed to stand for 3 or 4 days in the sun and filtered. Coat, by means of a sponge before retiring, the places of the skin where the freckles are and allow to dry.

There are many such methods, and especially to be mentioned is that of Unna, who uses resorcin for the purpose. Lassar makes use of a paste of naphthol and sulphur.

Sunburn Remedies.—