Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-05
COLD CREAM,LADY'S
|D,2,O[OYEARSOLD.
Museum Curator Says It Is
Second Oldest of All Phar-
maceutical Preparations.

Cold cream, indispensable cosmetic Of
present-day toilette, has been keeping
the wrinkles from milady's cheek for
1000 years.
It Is the second oldest in the collec-
ton Of ancient pharmaceutical prepara-
tons still In use, which is being as
semhled IN the division of medicine at
the National Museum, It is revealed by
Curator Charles whitehead. The fra
grant unguent, he says. has changed
very little from the original formula
for unguentum refrigerans ceratun, in
vented and prescribed by the Roman
physician 0alen, sometimes known as
the father Of pharmacy"
Cold Cream Held Medicine.
Whether old DR.. Galen set UP as
beauty specialist for his lady patients
is not known, the probability being that
medicine. That, says Mr. whitehead,
Is essentially what 1t Is today, despite
It's prominence rs q cosmetic. Galen's
mixture Of white wax and rose water
chung to the offlcial pharmacopeas, be-
cause It was an attractive basic prepara-
ton for holding skin medicants Of vari-
Gus sorts.
It was thrown out Of the third Lon
don Pharmacopea Of 1740, together with
strip Of puppies and hedgehogs, bread
crust plaster and lapis Nzuli pills as q
remnant of the superstitious medicine of
the Middle Ages, but 1t came back again
q few years later and held its own in
revisions which discarded crabs eyes,
woodlice, tincture of pearls and vipers
from the list Of oficial remedies.
It stil1 retained its place when such
sovereign remedies as human fat, pow
dered unicorn horns, moss from human
skulls and spider webs were thrown out
BY the developing science Of pharmacy.
Galen's Preparation.
The preparation advocated by Galen,
says Mr.. whitehead, was O mixture of
white wax and rose oil--or olive oil in
which three sets of fresh rose buds had
been lnacerated. The oil and wax were
two vessels until the mixture became
white, when little rose water and rose
vinegar were added This is what the
bellies Of ancient and modern times used
TO improve their beauty until compare
lively recent times when the formula
was changed to q mixture Of spermacetti
obtained from the sperm oil of whales;
white wax, oil Of almonds, sodium borate
and rose water Almost any chemical to
improve the skin can be used with this
base.
Oi0eSC Kennedy.
The oldest Of all the remedies in the
collection Is vinegar Of squills, an
emetic still in the American pharma-
the Greek philosopher, Pythagoras,
about $50 Be. made from bulbs of
. plant Of the lily family. Pythagoras,
says Mr.. whitehead, Is supposed to
have written o treatise on squills, but
his concept was that OF magic rather
than Of scientific medicine. He also
believed in the magic virtues of cab
bage and OF aniseseed and believed that
holding one Of the latter in the left
hand was q cure for epilepsy.
The next oldest remedy, stu some
times used, Il diachylon plaster, q lead
ointment, devised by Menekrates. ply
stefan to the Roman Emperor Tiberius,
about 400 AID. This collection, not
yet on exhibition, viii form part Of the
section devoted to the history Of
medicine.
An Ages Contribute.
All the ages, Mrs. whitehead says,
have contributed remedies Of some
value which remain In the pharma-
copeas, some with little more than the
tradition Of magic behind them, and
only today are efforts being made to
weed out those Of no particular value
hu0 Eet4m OuAy the more emCle1t drugs.
Some drugs which originally were
articles Of magic. says Mr.. whitehead,
have survived with somewhat different
uses because they really had valuable
medicinal properties. This Is true es-
pecially Of medicines of the American
Indians, who had some good remedies,
but almost always attributed their eff
fects to magic. Thus the brew from
. certain fern was given for rheun1a-
tisfn, because II had the habit Of bend
ing over and then becoming erect again.
The Indian interpreted this behavior
TO some mysterious virtue In the plant
which would operate just as well in
n-twisted human limbs.
Another Indian remedy he describes
was q really effective cure for worms
IN children, but the medicine man did
not comprehend the medical principle
involved. so before administering the
remedy he first dipped In 1t q sharp
flint knife, supposing that the virtue
OF the blade would pass into the con-
coction and enable It to cut the worm
to pieces. Much the same is true Of
many Of the medicines which have
come down through the white race.
Origin Of Only Few Preserved.
The actual origin Of only Q few Of
the common old medicines. Mr.. White
1900 aaVn has hnaF1 F1rANnFUaA hsvf