342 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS I feel that the head and hands have received too much attention in proportion to the rest of the body. I would like to see more done for the feet not just polish for toe nails, but skin and nail care. We need pro- tectives for the ankles and heels, softeners, keratolytics and moisturizers. Due to our standing position, vascular problems and their sequelae develop as a result of gravity plus aging. Cutaneous problems develop in the legs likewise from the inadequate protection offered by the thin stockings women wear today, combined with the vascular compression of garters and girdles. PERSONAL REfLeCTiOnS And now, I would like to present a few of my personal reflections on the entire subject we have been discussing. We doctors should not be cosmetics nihilists. Chemistry has given us tremendous benefits: wonder- ful shampoos, detergents, softeners, protectives, keratolytics, cleansers, tanning agents, depilatories, deodorants and dozens of others. Many of my patients complain to me that some doctors they have seen have no use for the whole subject of cosmetics and tell them to "leave it all off." To me, this shows a lack of appreciation for the good that certain cosmetics actually do, as protection from water loss, from de- greasing agents, from actinic rays, from friction and injury and from wind and chemicals. I feel that perhaps physicians are actually in subconscious revolt to two hackneyed phrases and all their connotations. One is "Keep the cash register ringing," where the implication is that the money motive necessarily excludes any service motive. The other is the un- ending monotony of description of "The beauty ritual." This phrase, I am sure, brings out latent hostility to women. The beauty ritual involves cleansing, lubricating, special creams by day and by night, special creams for the eyes and for the neck. Then there are hormones. There are masks too different things to do to the eyes, the eyelashes, the eyebrows, the lips, the jaw-line, the finger nails and toe nails. Then there is the time spent on color selection, bleaching creams, foundations, powders, rouge, and a wide range of hair things. All this implies with- drawal of the female half of our population into complete self interest. It represents the tremendous demand which is in many American women: the demand to be alluring to every man. This is a thought which might give rise to some serious thinking. Could that fact alone account for the demand of our women for more money and for more time to spend on themselves for the decreased respect of our women for our men--they are so sure of their universal appeal. And could this emphasis on universal appeal have a bearing on the number of broken homes we have? It certainly accounts for such statements from men other than physicians, as Walter Slezak's recent •emark that American women can be found doing

THE DERMATOLOGIST, THE OLDER WOMAN AND COSMETICS 343 one of two things: "Making up their faces, or making up their husbands' minds." Furthermore, the American woman is being made to look like a moron by her gullibility in such matters, such as that by putting a bee's food on her epidermis she will become some sort of queen herself. The American woman is developing a Peter Pan complex, which does not generate a mature outlook so desperately needed in the world today. As a dermatologist, I have spent many years in an appraisal of all these points. Among the women I have treated must be included society women, intellectual women, models, scrub women and just about every type and many nationalities. In all honesty, I find that I can just about guess the age of a patient regardless of how well groomed she is. To me, the expensiveness in money and time spent on self is a big differentiating point with regard not so much to age as it is to class. The loveliest women I have met are not measured in terms of economics but in terms of facial expression and bearing relating to their state of health and happiness. From time to time I have had the unhappy thought that it is impossible to get to know a specific woman because she wears a false face. To me, this is the unfortunate abuse of cosmetics. We end up with many pro- fessional people of all types, including dermatologists, just negating all cosmetics, and closing their minds to the true values of cosmetics in the broad sense. The ultimate aim of the professional person either in medicine or in industry is to help set people free--free from bondages of all sorts. May I quote a British physician in an address at Oxford University: "The physician tries to set people free from disease and put them on the road to health. The truth makes people free. But intellectual or scientific truth and the truth of the spirit are both aspects of the truth which makes people free. Spiritual truths set us free from diseases of the spirit as pride, fearfulness, self-pity, self-indulgence, resentment. There are laws of the spirit just as absolute as the laws of science" (15). I do not know what wonders are yet to come out of the chemistry labo- ratories. But I do know that the cosmetic chemists have a job to do in keeping the entire exterior of the body in good condition commensurate with the increasing longevity of the human race. In conclusion, I would like, as a dermatologist and as a woman, to challenge the cosmetic chemists to continue rapidly enlarging their scope away from overstimulation of self-interest in women, to a general public service. BIBLIOGRAPHY (1) Bean, W. B., •. Invest. Dermatol., 2{),' 27 (1953). (2) Reizenstein, A., Monatschv. prakt. Dermat., 18, 1 (1894). (3) Goldzieher, J. W., Rawis, W. B., Roberts, I. S., and Goldzieher, M. A., •. Gerontol., 7, 47 (1952). (4) Schmidt, M. B., ?irchow's •trch. Path. •tnat., 125, 239 (1891). (5) Rothman, Stephen, "Physiology and Biochemistry of Skin," Chicago, The University of Chicago Press (1954), p. 381.