Those who have the misfortune to contract cutaneous disorders arising from exposure to the contact of the low and degraded--and charitable persons sometimes run narrow risks of this kind--or from scorbutic affections or the fumes of certain medicines, each and any of which are liable to produce roughness and inflammation of the skin, will be glad of a speedy and certain cure for their affliction. It is a wash of sulphurous acid (not sulphuric), diluted in the proportion of three parts of soft water to one of the acid, and used three or four times a day till relieved. I knew a young lady whose fine complexion was ruined by the fumes of medicine she administered to her grandmother, whom she tended with religious care; and, thinking there may be others in like case, hasten to give this prescription. _Sub rosa_--all parasites on furniture, human beings, or pets are quickly destroyed by this application. CHAPTER VIII. Service of Beauty.--Not for Vanity, but Perfection.--Eyebrows of Petrarch’s Laura.--Fashionable Baths.--Trimming the Eyelashes.--Luxury of the Toilet.--Its Magnetic Influence.--A Safe Stimulant.--Amateurs of the Toilet.--Cosmetic Gloves.--To Refine the Skin of the Shoulders and Arms.--Sulphate of Quinine for the Hair.--For the Eyebrows and Eyelashes.--A Harmless Dye.--To Remove Sallowness.--A Hint for Stout People.--Perfumed Bathing-powder. It is a wonder that so few educated people address themselves to the service of beauty in the human form. It is refined to study draperies or design costumes for the adornment of the body, but not to develop the perfection of the body itself. Hair-dressers, perfumers, and tailors find ample consolation for being the ninth part of men, or something less, in public estimation, since the world finds their work a necessity, and amply repays it. Who make fortunes faster among the working-classes than those who minister to the desire for beauty, let us call it, rather than the severer name of vanity? The arts of the toilet are advanced to the rank of a profession abroad. English fashion journals declare this in their advertisements. Establishments in London and at fashionable watering-places offer brightly furnished parlors where one may enjoy the luxurious soothing of every appliance of the toilet in succession. The warm bath, in all the appealing pleasure of marble, porcelain, and gold, instead of dingy oil-cloths and reeking zinc basins, gives place to the deft hands of the hair-bather and the chiropodist, and these to the dresser, who arranges the locks, quickly and artificially dried, in the most elegantly simple style. Then comes the cosmetic artist, who removes blotches and specks from the face with quick acids, laves it with soothing washes, or applies emollient pastes which leave soft freshness behind. The vulgarity of paint and enamel is not allowed in these establishments, though the operators have good knowledge of all secrets of their art. Innoxious dyes are