RELATION OF HORMONES TO COSMETICS 219 can be observed by the effect on the user herself who, after all, studies the effects more closely than anyone else. Almost inevitably one finds the intensity of the pigmentary deposits increasing until in some cases finally all relation to the natu- ral colors are entirely lost. The advertising value in these cases is thus lost or changed. In the first case she merely becomes unattrac- tive and inartistically overpainted, in the second her efforts to increase the attractiveness of the whole women is transformed to an adver- tisment of merely one of her functions. In view of the fact that healthy human skin possesses qualities of light reflectance that are so unending as to be a source of continual stimu- lus to the artist, or cause the poor color photographer to go quietly mad, and he may be found in some colorless spot pathetically playing with his slide rule, it does not appear that to cover over this remarkable medium with simple pigments is evidence of skillful control of func- tion. Before leaving the blood vessels entirely we must recall that on them depends importantly the textural qualities of the skin, both visibly as well as to the touch. This results largely from two associated factors, namely, the amount of blood in and flowing through the skin, and sec- ondly the amount of extravascular fluid either between or inside the cells. The facial tissues are those most easily affected by conditions affecting water interchange, even quite normal ones, which again adds. a little variety to what otherwise would be a gradually crumbling mask. The increasing transpar- ency and heightened color of the excited girl dancing with her latest true lover is not just an illusion. Actually the face may under such conditions become measurably thin- ner owing to the withdrawal of extra- cellular fluid, just as it does by means of a prolonged immersion in the less romantic hot-water bath. While, therefore, it does not appear sound cosmetology to reduce the possibilities of the advertising function by the use of heavy pig- ments and powders in the wrong areas, their use as protective agents against the brutalities of weather and environment is very soundly based indeed, and in my opinion not carried nearly far enough. If you examine the skin of the' faces of old women, and compare it with almost any other unexposed place you can be shocked at the damage done by exposure. When we consider the second of our two great factors under the control of the sex-type hormones, namely, the growth development, maturation, and degeneration of epithelial tissue, we are apt to be- come amazed and bewildered at the complication of the factors involved. It is to be doubted that even those of' you who are interested in physi- ology, unless you have made spe- cial studies, have grasped the intri- cacies and the number of problems involved. I will freely confess that in spite of my own interest and a

IOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS fairly useful knowledge of function I am constantly running into a prob- lem not previously considered. Part of the reason lies in the obvious fact that the greatest organ of the body, namely the skin, has never been very seriously studied from a functional angle. Indeed the only erudite phase of this knowledge con- sists largely in learning pictures of the changes when it is subject to some breakdown process or another, and putting appropriate Latin names thereto. Such people also learn to use various simple oint- ments and lotions. The dermatolo- gist, as judged by his writings and texts, has yet to learn that one of the greatest functions of the body as well as its skin is advertising, and that this is not some simple inciden- tal of neither professional nor scien- tific interest. One may include the physiologist in this fair criticism for there is yet to be a text of functional activity that clearly names and discusses the function of advertising. It is true that some biologists have described and discussed various courting pat- terns which in man do not constitute the full function of advertising. Now the skin and its appendages, which include the hair, nails, grease supply, perfume glands, and mela- riotic pigmentary process, as you are all aware, depend like the blood itself for a continuing entity in time on a perpetual growth. Un- like the blood and sperm, the skin cells are not freed. On the con- trary they form a unique structure of the junction of living with dead cells. Such a structure invites spe- cial difficulties for the dead tissue cannot do anything to protect its entity and must be guarded during its useful "life" to the body by special means. This is accom- plished by three major ways. Or- derly growth orderly maturation and keratinization, and the applica- tion of antiseptic grease in appro- priate quantities. Ordinary pus or- ganisms do not attack dead skin readily but this is very susceptible to moulds and fungi, aggravated in the human by the added problem of sweating, which function is on the whole inimical to the skin. There seems no doubt that each of these functions while intimately coupled can be separated, and ex- cessive growth, keratinization or grease formation, or the reverse, can occur independently. Now we know with certainty that certain areas of epithelial' tissues can be directly influenced by the local application of sex hormones. For example, the epithelium of the young vaginal tract can be transf6rmed to its stratified adult form by a sup- pository. Or the breakdown with excessive keratinization of the same tissues in old women can be restored to reasonable functional normality by the same means. The liningof the nose also appears susceptible to di- rect local stimulus of the same drugs. While the effects of estrogenic hor- mones on the mammary tissue is too well known to discuss, it is not quite so commonly appreciated that the grease and wax glands of the human skin, on whose proper func-