FLORENCE E. WALL: REBEL INTO PIONEER 161 In accordance with these wide interests she is a Fellow of The American Institute of Chemists, a member of the American Chemical Society, the Society of Medical Jurisprudence and this SOCIETY or CoSV[ETIe CHEV[ISX,•. And what has been the result to date of the functioning of this complex and effective reaction mixture? At that time in the early twenties, after your Medalist turned to cos- metic chemistry, she resolved to bend her energies to putting this some- what recondite, dope-book, cut-and-try field on a sound scientific basis. You know much better than I the phases of this effort, the work, the sweat and tears. But here is the end result--the first woman medalist of the SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS. I give you Miss Florence Wall! FLORENCE E. WALL: REBEL INTO PIONEER BY L. Koz^¾ FLORENCE 1•. WALL and I both entered the cosmetology field in the same year and met the following year, during 1925, when she already was working for Inecto, Inc., then the leading manufacturer of hair dyes, as director of technical advice. She seemed to be exceptionally well-fitted for such a job. Dr. Ralph Evans had been looking for a woman chemist with teaching experience- someone who could use her hands. A requirement was a good background in organic chemistry, and Florence's experience in fur dyes probably had caught his eye. Her job was to serve as liaison between the laboratory, where they were doing intensive research on dyes and other hair preparations, and the salon where these were tried out on models. She began in the most prac- tical way she dyed her first head of hair on her first afternoon with the company. The laboratory work was soon sidetracked, however. Because she knew several languages, she was put on a special job of library research. Because she also could write effective letters, the officials had her establish a department of technical advice which involved handling all correspond- ence from cosmetologists and supervising all demonstrators on the road. Then the directors decided to entrust her with the writing of a text- book on hair dyeing. This took her three months, and she completed it on her first anniversary with the company. It went to press bearing the title "Canitics," a word which she herself coined to designate "the art and science of hair dyeing."

162 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS She went to Europe for three months to recover from all this and when she returned the book was out. The company heads immediately put her to work to organize a school. This was called the Notox Institute which specialized in postgraduate training in everything relating to hair dyeing. Many schools of this kind have been established since, but this was the first--and was a success from the very first day. Soon after the school was opened, Inecto, Inc, bought the Marinello Company and Florence was thrown into reorganizing the curriculum for the various schools. This gave her a chance to broaden out into the whole field of general beauty culture. After listening to the peculiar brand of science the teachers seemed to be composing before her very eyes and ears, she was convinced that she should study the background of cosmetology herself to establish the facts. She decided that she should go to a medical school for this information, but she could not get into any of the local schools--an outcome which she now looks back on as a miraculous escape. She later found a better way to acquire what she wanted. By this time her official title was Director of Trade Education and Tech- nical Publicity. Through her interest in the publicity, she became very active in the Women's Advertising Club of New York. She lectured fre- quently, giving talks on cosmetics to schools, clubs and other organizations. She continued to direct the Notox Institute, teaching hairdressers from all over the country and abroad, and also assist in the Marinello Schools until December of 1928. By then, the routine had become so well estab- lished that she was fed up with it and decided to go into the more stimulat- ing activities of free-lance work. It was a great surprise to all of us when she made this move, because she seemed to be doing such a wonderful job. When I came to know her better, I realized why this had to come about. She is essentially a creative person. She loves nothing better than to create something out of nothing and get it going but then she is willing to turn it over to someone else and start on something new. She had never forgotten her frustration about the medical course and what she had wanted to achieve through it. So she set up a program whereby she could study everything that seemed to relate to the back- ground of cosmetology which would contribute to a more scientific approach and greater accuracy. The first item on her list was to learn just how much actual skin trouble there was from the use of cosmetics. She already had met Dr. Herman Goodman, who at that time was working with Dr. Curt Wimmer in his cosmetic class at the College of Pharmacy, and he very generously allowed her to visit his clinic in dermatology at the Skin and Cancer Hospital. Dressed in a white coat like an intern, she faithfully attended there twice a week for three months. She learned a lot about skin troubles, but was