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

FLORENCE E. WALL: REBEL INTO PIONEER 163 happy to note that while there she observed nothing traceable to cosmetics. Then she went to Europe again, this time on a definite search for infor- mation about what Europe had to offer in cosmetics and beauty culture. She spent six months traveling through ten countries and studied her sub- ject from every angle. As a chemist (and she was also at that time editor of The Chemist), she reached all the professional people--other chemists, physicians (including many whose names are on our best books) and law- yers. As an active member of the Women's Advertising Club, she reached all the advertising and merchandising people. Also, as the former "big sister" in technical advice on cosmetology and cosmetics to salons all over the United States, she l•ad entrje to all the fine salons in Europe. As is characteristic of her, she gave as well as took. She lectured here and there and wrote articles for the press in England and Germany. One of the impressions she brought back with her was that we Americans should have no inferiority complex about our own cosmetic products and treatments. The way European prestige, especially French, was over- played in our advertising used to make her very impatient. I remember her saying, "Let's have anything that is European, or that is French, if it's really better than what we have...but not just because it's European !" She was barely settled at home when she received her first call in her free-lance work. This first job was to write a complete textbook for the Marinello Schools. As a title for this book, she coined the word, "Beautis- try." She reasoned: "We have chemistry and dentistry...why not 'beau tistry ?'" With this project she embarked on an intensive career of writing. It was here that she began to demonstrate her capacity to handle several different tasks while giving complete concentration to each. Her work at this time was very diversified. She was editor of The Chemist, writing articles for the trade magazines (including the one of which I was editor), giving some lectures and occasionally running an educational program for a trade show. During this time she also assisted the New York City Health Department in the revision of the Sanitary Code as it is related to cosmetics and worked with the Bureau of Investigation of the American Medical Association. Her next phase was when she became filled with a burning zeal to make cosmetics and cosmetology better understood by professional people. She presented the first paper on cosmetics ever read before the American Chemical Society. About this time she was made an honorary member-- and she was long the only woman member--of the Paint and Varnish Division of the Society--because there seemed to be no other place in the organization for someone of her rather unusual interests. Another notable paper in this particular cause was the one she presented before the Society of Medical Jurisprudence. I remember the occasion very