However, frequently the patient does not consider his private affairs the business of any outside, even of the physician, and keeps these important items to himself. Nevertheless, if the physician does not realize that these underlying influences exist, he may fall so far short of helping the patient that he may imperil his own belief in the hom opathic possibilities of cure, as well as the confidence of the patient. Often the physician does not know of the home prescribing of the patient with such products of the pharmacist, but modern advertising keeps these products before the mind of the public to such an extent that they have proved one of the greatest barriers to cure ever known. Cosmetics may prove the obstacle to cure just as surely as narcotics or coal-tar derivatives. Many cosmetic preparations contain substances advertised to suppress perspiration, eruptions, or to remove hair growth.
Most physicians see cases definitely traceable to such measures.
The suppressed eruptions and their sequel are endless. We have seen a case of progressive paralysis in a young woman which she herself traced to the use of a depilatory preparation. An eminent contemporary prescriber reported a case of a persistent Coccus cacti cough which refused to yield-until he ordered the young woman to stop the use of her lipstick, when the cough ceased. It is notable that some of these cases occurred, not in users of the cosmetic products, but in those associated with them. The hom opathic physician under-stands the power of ambergris, musk, etc., to produce symptoms in the potency.