COSMETICS AND THE FUTURE 267 you will recall the gradual, the very gradual introduction and ex- pansion in the use of lipstick, not to speak of such more specialized beautifying agents in the eye make- up line as mascara and eyebrow pen- cils, and even the current resistance to tints and dyes for the hair. Not too long ago, I believe I read an article written by our dis- tinguished vice-president, Dr. Mc- Donough, who expressed the opin- ion that the cold-wave idea would find much quicker and wider ac- ceptance were it not for the fear of many girls that its use might well become the subject of some mighty critical talks in the circles of the town in which they were living. Time alone will correct that. Natural[y, we must admit that a good many wrong ideas, wrong ap- plications in poorly studied and ill- prepared toilet articles brdught on the market during the last 35 years have often done harm, and dis- couraged many prospective users. Not too many years ago, the number of men who could call themselves perfumers could be counted on the fingers of two hands, and almost the same was true of the number of cosmetic chemists who devoted their time exclusively to that specialized chemistry and art. Today, as you know, the situation has changed, but it is necessary to review certain aspects of the industry historically, to iso- late all the good points and to study the errors which led to many fail- ures. Man)' of you are qualified to speak of the artistic end which plays such an important role in the distribution of cosmetics. We manufacturers of raw materials have been almost solely concerned with the quality of our products, and the desire to find new products which either could replace ad- vantageously an old one, or could lead to a new preparation, or give an old preparation a new and more valuable quality. I have taken the trouble of look- ing up in the unabridged Webster the meaning of the word, "cos- metic," and its possible origin. The Greek word "kosmetikos" re- fers to one's skill in decorating and beautifying. That word itself has as its basis the Greek word "kos- mos" which primarily means order and harmony. It appears that his- tory is correct in placing the philos- ophy of the ancient Greek culture on a high plane within the realm of philosophical thinkers. And whereas the ordinary man perhaps does not immediately see the con- nection between beautifying, order, and harmony, and the secondary meaning of the wold "kosmos" which means the world and/or the universe, the Grecian philosophers had thought it out and had visual- ized it. In their highly developed sense of beauty and harmony, they would not like to see the world and the universe in any way other than an arranzement full of natural order, skillfully and artistically har- monized, full of beauty in every sense and direction. That was their idea of a perfect "kosmos" or

268 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS universe. Perhaps it is also akin to the theory of the finalists and the telefinalists who believe sincerely that we, the world, the human be- ings, are gradually moving to a state of absolute perfectness. When I say slowly or gradually, I mean that as far as we know we have made little progress, if any, in that direction during the last 5000 years, but we can discern a definite progress between the time that the Neanderthal man was the most highly developed human be- ing on this earth, and we ourselves today. The telefinalist does not count in periods of thousands of years he counts in periods of hundreds of millions of years. Sci- ences such as anthropology, geol- ogy, and petrography do not con- tradict the theories of the finalists or the telefinalists and the biol- ogists are in accord with those theories. Two vital forces, it is believed, will bring us to the Utopian state that is, to the perfect human being in the perfect nation, and in a per- fect world. The one force would be the workings of genetics, and the second force, simple tradition. And it would be called part of genet- ics, since environment has only been thought of as influencing the development not only of the hu- man body, but also of the human mind. Now, what have cosmetic sci- ence and cosmetic industry to do with finalism and telefinalism? It is obvious that in the Utopian state, the old Roman saying, "mens sana in corpore sano," "a healthy mind in a healthy body," is an accomplished fact. But it is also an accomplished fact that the use of cosmetics, motivated by the desire of women and men to look their best, has forced people to acquire health habits, habits of cleanliness which certainly have made a tremendous contribution toward the high level of civilization in which we are now moving daily. It is logical that we will continue in that direction. The cosmetic industry, thanks to the hard-working cosmetic chem- ists, it seems to me, is far ahead in reaching its goal of the finalist. The cosmetic chemist has acceler- ated his steps by daily and con- tinuous research, and it is his de- sire to improve his products in every respect and to bring them more to absolute perfectness. If every human being worked as hard to improve himself, his human re- lationships, as he does for the prod- ucts he produces, the world would soon be a better place to live in. Many factors have been instru- mental in getting nearer to the ultimate goal--the perfect prepara- tion mechanical instruments, new and improved chemicals, whether they be to influence the structure of a cream or to improve the emulsify- ing qualities, whether they be to improve the softness, lasting power, or any other special .characteris- tics. The chemistry of toilet prepa- rations and the art in producing them have undergone so many favorable changes, so many ira-