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.

250 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS Miss Jeffree, the first Beauty Consultant to do this type of work, went to the hospital one day a week for six months. She had to work empirically, of course, and she had to devise treatments different from those which we would have used in the ordinary way. In fact, she moulded her techniques as the needs arose. The types of treatment that we gave were: (a) Cleanse and make-up, (b) massage and make-up, (c) depilatory, (d) manicure, and (e) beauty lesson. The value of those different types of treatment can be assessed as follows: (a) The cleanse and make-up made the people feel, and look, relaxed. (b) The massage had a very soothing, relaxing and calming effect on patients who were very restless, fidgety and difficult to handle. (c) Depilatory treatments were most important because many people with mental disturbances suffer from a glandular imbalance which produces growths of unwanted hair. The growth of hair on the face in particular can be extremely distressing. Depila- tories broke through reserve and sullenness and produced a much better attitude of mind. (d) Manicure helped the ones who were always fidgeting with their fingers and did not know what to do with them. They suddenly looked down at their nails, saw them looking more attractive, and that had the correct stimulating effect. (e) The beauty lesson was aimed at making the patients take back to the wards the techniques that they had learned in the Beauty Room so that they could carry on the good work themselves. The selection of the patients was left to the doctors and matron. If they thought that any particular patient would benefit by the treatment, then she was sent to Miss Jeffree. Quite obviously the service on one day a week only touched a percentage of the patients, but during the first period of six months, we were able to give just under 500 treatments. Some patients had more than one treatment, some had only one. As soon as the scheme was launched, even before the experiment had proved itself, other hospitals asked if they too might come into the scheme, and so we found ourselves negotiating and trying to help three other hospitals within a few xveeks of Goodmayes having started. It became clear that if we were going to carry on the scheme, there was only one way in which we could do it, and that was to train nurses for the hospitals. As Miss Jeffree