Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1871-06-07
Milk asa Cosmetic.

| The use of cosmetics is common to
all ages and to all climes. Jewish ladies,
in the time of Solomon, and Christian
| ladies, in the reign of Victoria, have not
| been unmindful of adding to their
charms by applying different ingre-
dients to their skin for the purpose of
preserving it's delicacy and beautifying
its appearance Mime. Rachel was neith-
er the first nor the last artist in skin
decoration, although she certainly was
one of the most expensive to deal with.
From the painted wife of the Indian
chief of the backwoods or desert, to
the powdered and rouged dowager who
drives along our parks, the gentle sex
are skilled in the secret arts OF making
themselves !, beautiful for ever" We
hear little however, in the present day,
of the use of milk as beautifyer OF the
skin In the country we have seen milk
Pure cream, as cold as it can be obtain
ed, is used to chapped lips and to scalds.
!" Skyblue," :" made 1ukewarm, is not
uncomonly used as fermentation, and
rustic maids who have had their hands
and faces scorched by the sun in the har
vest-feld, attempt to cool their skin and
restore it's color by washing it with but
ter milk We have never known III this
country auy preference given for one
milk over another for such purposes If
we except supposed remady for any sore
eness of the eye, VIZ: that of forcing milk
from the human brest into tia quack
practice followed by the peasantry Of
some districts, and said by them to be of
peculiar benefit. For medicinal and di-
etetic purposes the difference between
the milk of various domesticated ami
mails is not unknown to us. We have
seen children reared on goats milk in
preference to that of cows, over which
it was supposed to contain more nutri-
tious and digestible elements for the
lnfantstomach Mare milk fermented
and made into koumiss has for ages been
priced by the Tartars for it's health-re-
storing qualities, and is now becoming
widely known in England for it's valu-
able properties since its introduction
by DIR. Jagielski. But ass milk we
are told, was the great favorite with Ro-
man ladies The Imperial wives of the
voluptuous Caesars revelled in it. A Ro
man lady in those times went to bed
with court plaster of bread and ass
milk applied to her face. The appl1ca-
ton of this novel cosmetic, or rather
poultice, gave her, on awakening, a very
cracked appearance, but when it was re-
moved by further washing in ass milk,
her skin was considered to be sufficient
ly perfect as groundwork for the red
and white pigments with which the
slaves decorated her face. Some fine la
dies of that olden time took bath of
ass milk as often as seventy times aday;
and whenever Poppea, Neros favorite
wife, travelled with her gay retinue,
she took along with her herds of asses,
SO that she might take her usual bath
whenever she pleased 1t must have
been a luxury which the wealthy only
could enjoy to such perfection. Should
thepopular Roman custom revive among
English ladies, we assure them also
that their ablutions after the Roman fash
ion will not be in expensive. We have
just purchased of Mr. Deverson, of Ed
geware road, sampleof ass milk, which
he retails at five shilling per quart. A
sufficient quantity for bath for moder-
ate sized lady would considerably add
to the daily expenses of the household
OF course, where there was tendency
to eD1bonpoiftt among members of the
family it would be still greater, d1splace-
ment of the fluid, milk, would bear the
same proportion to the foreign body i'm
mersed as happened with water when
the Greek philosopher shouted the
memorable word =" Eureka !"-IHe MIX
Journal.