384 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS ing as to when the aging process begins. What is aging, and when shall we say that a person is beginning to get old? There are many different opin- ions on this subject too, but as far as we are concerned in our measurements, we think it begins rather early. One of the things we are able to measure are the excretory products of some of the glands of internal secretlot{, particularly the adrenal gland which is the--I won't say most important--but an extremely important secretory gland of the human body. Without a properly functioning ad- renal cortex, life is incompatible. Many of the other glands can be out of order and nothing very serious will happen, but if the adrenal ceases to per- form its normal function you are certainly in trouble. The pituitary, through the secretion of its hormones, called the trophic hormones, has a direct effect on the testes and on the adrenal cortex. In the female, for example, a measurement of the 17-keto-steroids in the urine is, we feel, an indication of the functioning capacity of the adrenal. Until about the age of puberty, the excretion of these steroids in the urine is the same for both boys and girls, but when the testes begin to develop and the boys begin to put out testosterone there is a sudden increase in the male, until about age twenty-five and then they fall off sharply. The dif- ference between the male and female is because of the contribution of the testes, but at about age sixty these lines begin to converge, and we feel that indicates not only some failure of the adrenal gland but also of the testes. The question of aging and when does it begin is one that we cannot answer specifically, but in so far as it is possible for us to measure function and physiology of the human body we feel that it begins rather early--perhaps between age twenty-five and thirty-five. This does not apply, however, to the mind or its capacity to function. Examining the histories of some 400 career men and women, the most notable and outstanding statesmen, painters, warriors, poets, and writers of their time indicates that the decade of years between sixty and seventy produced 35 per cent of the world's greatest achievements between seventy and eighty years of age, 23 per cent of all the world's outstanding achieve- ments after eighty years, 8 per cent. Or, in other words, 66 per cent of all great achievements and accomplishments by man were developed and given posterity after he had reached or passed the age of sixty. During the past half century, the population of the United States has doubled, but the number of persons past the age of sixty-five has quadrupled. In 1900 the proportion of men and women sixty-five years of age and over, in our total population, was one in twenty-five today it is around one in twelve and is steadily increasing. There are, in the United States today, 141/•. million men and women sixty-five years of age and over. This num- ber is increasing at the rate of about 400,000 a year. By 1965 there will be approximately 20,000,000 men and women over the age of sixty-five.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF SKIN GERIATRICS 385 Women outnumber men in this class by about 10 to 9. More than half of the women in this age group are widows whereas the majority of men sixty- five and over are still married and have not lost their wives. About 85 per cent of all men over age fifty-five are still at work and 50 per cent of all men over sixty-five are still at work in spite of a somewhat patronizing air on the part of many corporations to retire men at age sixty-five. A great many of them go out and find jobs elsewhere, and more power to them be- cause maturity of judgment is a very important thing in our life today, and maturity of judgment only comes with maturity. Over 25 per cent of women age fifty-five are in the labor force today and at age sixty-five this percentage has been reduced by about half so that only 121/2 per cent of these women are still working. It must be perfectly obvious that both men and women who are still engaged in business activi-. ties and active social life, are conscious of their hair and face and general appearance. A question asked of me recently is, "At what age does a woman become a geriatric problem?" I cannot answer that because there is such a tremen- dous difference between individual women. I might say that the physiology of the change is different in the woman than that of the man because we do know that generally between the ages of forty and fifty, the woman ceases to have ovarian function. She enters that phase of life called the meno- pause and after which she is no longer able to have children. As a rule, men do not have that type of physiologic change. We do not feel that men go through the same type of change although there are very definite changes that take place, and there is even an entity known as the male climacteric. I have never been able to find a single man in the world who admitted that he was in the menopause, but it can happen, so watch your step. It certainly must be very well understood by members of your group that special problems are involved in maintaining the hair and skin of older people, and that cosmetic research should be directed along the lines of special preparations for the older age group. You have a tremendous mar- ket already, some 141/2 million people and that market is increasing every year. Without being a cosmetic chemist, I know that a woman does not use or perhaps should not use the same type of makeup at age sixty-five that she found quite satisfactory at age twenty-five, or more particularly at age fifteen. These little girls dip into mother's rouge pot and they have the time of their lives and, more power to them, because the earlier they learn how to use these wonderful weapons, defense weapons--and offensive, too, the better off they will be. Actually, it seems a little strange that the general products on the market today specifically for older people are limited to the hair coloring materials and perhaps the estrogenic creams. There are all kinds of wrinkle-proof creams, and this-that-and-the-other, and cleansing creams, but I do not