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-

COSMETICS AND THE FUTURE 269 provements, that sometimes it may seem that little more can be done in that direction. Naturally, many of the improve- ments were of a funda. mental na- ture, such as the introduction of suitable qualities of mineral oils others were more or less minor in importance, as the introduction of stabilizers. And I will never forget an incident that occurred some fif- teen or twenty years ago, when stabilizers were not yet commonly used to prevent rancidity and composition. A cosmetic chemist somewhere out West had produced what appeared to his employer to be the almost perfect specialty cream. It was the product he had long visualized in order to achieve a great success in the field of high- priced creams. No sooner did he put it on the market than he found that his storage samples started to take on an undesirable odor in other words, decomposition had set in with its usual destructive char- acter. What should be done about it.• At that time I happened to be out West. The cosmetic chemist put in an urgent call for me. After I learned the names of the raw materials used in the cream, I sug- gested a laboratory product which we knew had good stabilizing quali- ties in such cases, but which we had not yet brought on the market. We sent him a sample, and after a week or two of accelerated testing, and after six or eight months of nor- mal testing under natural condi- tions, the stabilizer was found to work 100%. It did all that the customer desired. The result was a $25 order, with the possibility of a similar order by the end of the year! At that time, it sounded rather discouraging, but it is en- couraging to know that today, more than 50,000,000 pounds of that fatty acid which made the disturbance in that cream, are being stabilized with the very same chemi- cal that looked so hopeless from an economic point-of-view, fifteen or twenty years ago. Cosmetics, and in particular creams, have so many missions to fulfill when they are used on the human body that, in order for a cosmetic chemist to improve the visible and invisible qualities, he must study not only the skin itself but its many functions and all the work it is supposed to do. Surely there is nothing better than a cream and its proper application that can be helpful toward that aim. Rightly or wrongly, it had always been my impression that if the chemicals, that is, the fatty acid derivatives, that are used in creams were to be the same or similar to the ones which are natural secretions of our skin, produced and expelled by our oil glands, such a prepara- tion would come close to the ideal. In fact, you may want to go just a little further and have the "natu- ral synthetic," if you will allow this expression, in beautifying qualities just a little better than the natural product. For instance, it should have much less or no tendency to decompose and become rancid it should be a crystal-clear liquid