Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-07-07
Poisonous Toilet Articles.

Cold lead may become injurious to
life in more ways than in parabola
from a gun-barrel, and there is little
doubt that its victims in peace are pref
ty nearly as numerous as in war. 1t is
a subtle and stubborn enemy; can effect
an entrance into the human system in
many ways without leaving a mark to
indicate its passage, and when it thus
insidiously attacks its victims it can not
be removed with surgical instruments.
The injurious effects of fresh paint are
due to the lead out of which they are
mixed, and painters collie is disorder
caused by taking the minute particles of
metal into the lung. and through the
pores. Ladies may escape its ambushes
of this kind, but they are likely to give
it all the opportunity it desires in other
ways. For instance, hair dyes are al
legged to contain varying amounts of
lead. These colorless preparations,
which, the purchaser believes, can re-
store the original tints to the hair, hold
lead in solution, while the cosmetics
for the face which go by the high-sound-
ing names of enamel, and so forth,
yield the analytic chemist larger or
smaller precipitates of white and red led
when properly treated. The death of a
young lady of Buffalo from lead-poison-
ing through the foolish habit of resorting
to artificial complexion serves to direct
public attention to the subject again.
In this case the leaden particles were
absorbed by the pores of the skin into
the system. For eight years the unhap-
py girl had been an invalid, and at
length death relieved her. Bismuth,
anthony, and other minerals are made
use of more or less literally, and all
bring about their natural results sooner
or later.
Even when the cosmetic is no more
deleterious in composition than rice
water or chalk, it is injurious, since it
chokes the pores of the face. Effete
matter is carried from the skin through
the system to an extent that would sur
prise anybody who had never paid at
tention to the subject, and so necessary
is this dermal excretion that the loss of
one-third of the breathing surface of the
body is sufficient to produce death. But
the mere fact that the application of
cosmetics is attended with danger, will
not prevent their use by ladies. Phys
ical debility, torture, and far more seri-
Gus complications resulting from their
use, have not prevented the wearing of
tight shoes and ecorsets, and never will,
and health ana .comfort are only too
gladly sacrificed for beauty and the adj
miration of the foolish. 1t is curious to
note how local is the fashion of using
cosmetics. Compared with the mode
of a century ago, when every woman
had recourse to the cosmetic pad, the
absence of artificial color is extraordi-
nary. Few ladies of good taste in New
York and Brooklyn will consent to apply
false complexion. In Philadelphia,
however, it is considered quite a proper
thing to paint, and even young and
pretty girls are to be met whose lovely
natural skins are deeply OVERLAND with
the most ingenious coats of coloring
matter. 1t may be that Philadelphia
prefers to be law to itself, but that the
descendants of the 'sdrab- colored" Qua
kers should make a fashion of falsity, is
rather singular, to say the least. La
dies, however, who use cosmetics with
the idea that gentlemen are either de-
ceived by them or pleased, labor under
an extraordinary mistake.-New York
Times.