248 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS stated that the boy was not unbalanced. He was a sensitive type of person who, because he did not wish to be offensive or unacceptable to other people, allowed the whole matter to prey on his mind. I mention all these points because they form a background which will help to appreciate what I am going to tell you later. The idea of the Hospital Beauty Scheme came to me very simply as a result of having seen women who, leaving our Salon after having had a beauty treatment, realized that they could look better with the correct use of cosmetics, and that they not only became better groomed and looked smarter, but they were more poised and confident and their personalities seemed to emerge in a more positive way. People who were shy and with- drawn and almost diffident became more alive and more prepared to take their part in the world, and as they walked out of the shop, perhaps with their heads a little higher and their steps more sprightly, I said to myself: "If we can do this for healthy people, how much more could we do for sick people ?" I felt that if we could show to sick people that we could restore confidence then we would be doing a really valuable job of work. It is the knowledge that they can look better which is the important thing. My attention naturally turned to people with nervous diseases, because I knew from statistics that about 14 per cent of all women found their way into mental institutions at some time in their lives and it seemed that this was the sort of field that we ought to tackle first. I knew also that women suffering from these difficulties were immensely depressed, took very little interest in themselves, that they drew away from normality and their surroundings, and that their personal appearance became tremendously neglected. I therefore contacted matrons, doctors and psychiatrists, who listened very courteously to me and said: "Oh, yes, this is a wonderful idea. Our great difficulty is getting these persons to take an interest in themselves." So I was very encouraged and I would say: "How do you think we can implement this scheme ?" And then, envisaging all the complications of organization and the scepticism that would be aroused, they would say: "Ah, yes, well, we will let you know about this. We will just think about it." And, of course, they never did. So it went on, and I did not seem to be making any kind of impact, until I was fortunately given an introduction to Dr. Somerville, of Goodmayes Hospital. Dr. Somerville is one of the foremost psychiatrists in the country, but from the point of view of the scheme he was a person of immense perception. He really has a breadth of mind and an understanding of people which is outstanding. I did not have to explain what I was trying to do, nor even the way I was trying to do it. Within a quarter of an hour of my having met him he just said: "Excellent, that is first class." By comparison with the other receptions that I had met with it was very stimulating. We immediately tried to see how we could

THE HOSPITAL BEAUTY SCHEME implement the scheme. I think it is interesting to record that at that first interview Dr. Somerville told me that, when a student in Edinburgh, he had picked up an old book of recipes dated 1540. It was an attempt to give recommendations for health and also included quite a large section on the appearance of women. Although the book was not a scientific one, and most of the recipes were very empirical, Dr. Somerville had the sense to see that there was a fundamental wisdom about it which attempted to link well- being, health and appearance. And so, when he later took up medical journalism, he did not lose sight of this point. And he emphasized that women's appearance is an important part of their well-being and a build-up of their personalities. He is now a famous man in his own field. I think that I ought to say something about the mental hospitals in this country and about the atmosphere which prevails therein. There has been a tremendous advance in the understanding of the difficulties of the mentally sick, but there are still a number of people who think about mental hospitals as dungeon-like buildings where people drag about in chains. I would like to disillusion you at once. In the course of the last eighteen months, I hax•'e been to many mental hospitals and I have been tremendously impressed with the really forward thinking and development which is taking place in that sphere. Every effort is being made to see that the hospitals are as attractive as possible and, indeed, they look very little different, in fact sometimes more attractive, than many general hospitals. I think this is a very encouraging thing. When we came to talk about the scheme at Goodmayes and I suggested that the Beauty Room should be as attractive as possible, Dr. Somerville readily agreed. We aimed to make it look like a little beauty salon with all the glamour and appeal that such a place would have in Bond Street or elsewhere. In order to obtain the necessary money without resort to the National Health Scheme, Dr. Somerville appealed at once to "The Friends of the Hospital." In this way he avoided all criticism or resentment from tax payers, who might not appreciate the full value of the scheme and might have said that their money was being wasted, etc., etc. He made quite sure that the room was equipped out of private funds and so started it off on the right foot. As the whole idea was experimental at that stage and there was no proof that what I hoped to do was really going to benefit people, I suggested, in order that we might make the experiment as far as possible a controlled one, that our company lend him for, say, a period of six months for one day a week, our Senior Consultant, who is most sympathetic and really quite brilliant in her field of Salon work. If she came, we felt that we should know that whatever was not proved by the scheme was not due to the faults of the operator. Dr. Somerville was very happy to agree to this.