TENTH I,ITERATURE AWARD 537 headaches. I am reminded of the Broadway playwright who wanted to as- certain what it was in spirited drinks that made him ill, so he took Scotch and water, Rye and water, Bourbon and water, etc., and uncritically con- cluded that water was the cause of his trouble. Mercer seems not to have tried the inverse experiment of imbibing pure alcohol on the chance that unrelated substances in ethylated beverages might be at fault. Every genius has blind spots. I close by mentioning a property which you will soon observe for your- self, an honest, unaffected modesty. In Lloyd George's words, there never was a small man who felt small or a large man who felt large. It is my pleasure to commend to your attention an international giant. Acceptance BY E. H. MERCER, PH.D. When I received word that I was to be honored with this award I had doubts as to my worthiness, since I had worked so little on problems related to cosmetics. These doubts persisted. In fact they have only just been dispersed this evening by the eloquence of my eulogist, Dr. Kligman. He has finally convinced me that I am a fit and proper recipient. In a eulogist, moderation is not a virtue. He needs must exaggerate or (not to put too fine a point on it) even lie in a good cause. And of eulogists' lies, it may be said (as that charming young lady Fanny Hill is alleged--wrongly as it happens--to have said in quite another context), "There are no little ones, only BIG ones and whoppers." Well, A1 Kligman told some whoppers to- night, and I'm grateful to him for introducing me so mendaciously. I accept this little slip of paper now without qualm. Another emotion I experience on receiving the news was pleasure-- pleasure that it should come from the Soc•v.T¾ or CosM•.Tm Ci•v.M•sws that they should take the trouble to put on record in this substantial way (for $1000 is substantial) their faith in the value of academic research to cosmetic science. I wish even more now that I could work directly on cos- metics there seems to be money in it. But in Australia, where there are, alas! twenty t•mes more sheep than women, one has to work on sheep. When I came to write my book on keratinization, my interests had drifted farther from practical applications. I wrote because I had become prey to that dangerous urge to tidy things up and put them in order: an urge common to philosophers, religious fanatics, dictators and paranoid of all kinds. The masses of unrelated and undigested data about skin and hair in books and journals upset me. I set about tidying it up in response to this personal need. I presented the epidermis in molecular terms as a biological adaptation

538 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS evolved to protect us mammals from the chemical and mechanical hazards of our environment occasioned by our ancestors having left the cosy sea. There was an aspect I touched upon but did not develop, and it is precisely here that cosmetics find their natural place. The epidermis and its append- ages (hair, feathers, nails, etc.) not only function as a protective coat it is in addition the surface we present to the other members of our species it is our billboard where we make personal and even intimate announcements, a component in the interspecies communication system. I need hardly remind you of the incredible mating displays of birds or of the role of odors among the mammals. Of paramount importance among the lower animals who have not our doubtful advantage of speech, the epidermis remains nevertheless among us the basis of a more fundamental nonverbal form of communication. Some men (I am told) have fallen in love with a woman on hearing her voice--they would have been better advised to wait until they got their hands on her epidermis. Some women (in novels at least) fall in love with a man's poetry. Again, before going further, I would counsel a quick look at the poet's epidermis. In this primitive intersexual signalling system, the epidermis and its odors have pride of place, and cosmetics in very general terms is the art of enhancing this type of communi- cation. It aims to make on empirical and theoretical grounds such significant changes in our appearance and odor as to produce a favorable response from others. For accidental historical reasons in our culture we cover most of our sur- faces except the face and hands cosmetic chemists therefore concentrate on these parts. It was not always so--and I can point to the Maoris and aborigines of Australia as excellent examples of more extensive decoration. and even among us, it is a limitation only to be deplored, because there is no question that subconsciously other parts remain still in force as elements in the signalling system. E.g., all men here (and all the knowledgeable women) are aware of the importance of the female derriere--a truly enor- mous area of epidermis, today wholly excluded from the cosmeticJan's skill. I am convinced that the sight of this object disappearing among the bushes was to early man the releasing signal, par excellence. I have often in the Zoo (an invaluable institution for the education of cosmeticians as well as philosophers) meditated on the vivid red and blue bottoms of baboons and felt (were I a baboon) how that sight would send me. Relative to these humble apes, ladies and gentlemen, we are in this area frankly deprived. I can only hope that when further academic re- search has revealed the persistent importance among humans of signals transferred at this subliminal level, and we take the appropriate steps, the cosmetic scientists will march in and adorn the reconquered areas. A walk down the street will really be something then. I should think it must be pretty clear by now what my future line of re-