Evening star., 1933-03-31
CHEMISTRY BRINGS
SYNTHETIC SCIENCE
IN BEAUTY CULTURE
New York Woman Tells Con-
vention Here EvoIutions
of Cosmetics.
MICHIGAN ADDRESS
ON CHILDREN'S DIETS
Miss I. G. Macie, Research Director
of Couzens Foundation, Points
to Milk Importance.

Modern organic chemistry is develop
ing a new synthetic science Of beauty
culture, according to paper presented
before the American Chemical Society
here yesterday by Florence E. Wall
chemical consultant, of New York City
The history of cosmetics, Miss Wall
pointed out, passed from one group OF
practitioners to another in rapid sue
cession. Starting as religious exercise
beauty culture for long time was
part of medical practice, but, she said
this developed so rapidly that by the
fifteenth century internal medicine and
the cure of recognized disease were di-
vorced from mere external embellish-
ment.
"The disorganization that followed
this separation" Miss Wall said. was
rapid and complete. The lore of cos
metics and beauty culture was scattered
about among the alchemists. with doc
tors, pharmacists, BARRIERS, hair dressers
idle ladies and their maids. Each
group took what it needed from the old
books, making up in mystery ano
hokum what was lacking in science.
"The nineteenth century saw a gen.
eral revival of interest. Many physicians
wrote on skin and hair, manufacturers
published .semi-scientific treatises to
push the sale Of cosmetic products
stage beauties began to confide their Sc
crets to the world, and self-apSointed
beauty experts arose on every side
Then chemistry first turned serious
thought to cosmetics and beauty cul-
ture and found them submerged In
medieval, pseudo-science, trade secrets
and nonsense"
Beauty culture logically belongs te
organic chemistry, Miss Wall asserted
Physicians, she said, would like to have
it back in their clutches, but 1t has OUT
grown them.
Children's Diet Described.
Diets for growing children, possible
even in family budgets curtailed by hard
times, were described by Miss I. G.
Macie, research director of the Chill
dren's Fund of Michigan. founded In
1923, with a $10,000,00 gift from Sen
ator Couzens.
There is tendency in some OF our
municipal economy programs, sne salo'
''to reduce the amount OF milk because
It Is LIQUID and may appear expensive
In economic distress, when 1t becomes
necessary to curtail the food budget to
subsistence level, reduction must be
made wisely if we are to escape the
penalty. Of malnutrition.
Children" she explained, may grow
at the expected rate but due to mis-
takes in diet their bodies may be in
an actual state of impoverishment for
some of the essential foods for tissue
and bone building. In such growth
the muscular tissues may be soft, habby
and water logged, the blood anemic
and the bones and teeth defective. Par
ents may believe the child to be enjoy.
ing health but metabolic studies in the
laboratory demonstrate that an un-
healthy type of growth of this nature
endangers the we'll being of the child.
1t is during infancy and early childhood
that conditions develop which handicap
the individual later in life.
In the laboratory the foods of the
runabout child are being subjected to
close scrutiny and scientific tests. The
actual amount of food used up and
stored by active, healthy, rapidly grow
ing children over extended periods has
been recorded. The instudy indicates
that satisfactory growth may fiuctuate
and is not constant from day to day
even under the most rigidly controlled
conditions.
Composition Variable.
"The composition of growth is vari-
able. In some periods, it may be rich
in water and fat while in others more
nitrogen and mineral salts are used up
in the formation of muscular and bony
tissues. Continuous metabolic balance
studies were made on the same chill
dren when they were fed one pint OF
milk in a controlled diet complete in
all known dietary factors, and again
on one quart of milk Coincident with
the increase in milk consumption there
was greater storage of nitrogen in the
body which tended to persist so long
as the higher level of milk was main
tanned and again decreased with a re-
duction in milk consumption.
Control of the red spider, an insect
pest which annually causes large crop
ised with the DEVELOPMENT of an insecti-
eide based on selenium, an element
closely related to sulphur, according to
the report of C. B. Gnadinger, Mime
apoliS research chemist. The spider
feeds, he said, on nearly 200 varieties
of plants and it is estimated that the
damage to the cotton crop alone reaches
81 600 900 a year. The insects multiply
very rapidly and always have been i'm
mune to commonly used poisons.
Researches which may lead eventually
to the complete separation of petroleum
products into their component constitu-
ents-a scientific development of vast
future importance to the oil industry
were reported to the petroleum division
of the society.
Hydrocarbon Mixtures.
DR.. M. r. Fenske of Pennsylvania
State College, who submitted the report,
asserted sufficient engineering data on
four hydrocarbon mixtures had been
obtained to enable equipment to be de-
signed for their separation by distil-
lation.
The study of chemical reagents offers
field of investigation which "chal-
lenges the knowledge and ingenuity" OF
the analytical chemist, according to DR..
Edward Wichers of the Bureau of
Standards, chairman of the Washing
ton section of the American Chemical
Society. who reported experimental
procedure on this subject.
Silicates used in soaps make 1t pos
sible to wash dirty clothes clean even
in hard water, according to studies
conducted by John D. Carter and Will
liam Stericker of the Philadelphia
Quartz Co. The scientists declared
they derived much of their data from
washings of thousands of pieces of
cloth, each immersed from to 20
times They found that clean cloths,
washed with dirty cloths. had a ten
dency to emerge from the process In
soiled condition.
Alumni of Cornell, Chicago, Harvard,
Illinois, Massachusetts, Institute of
Technology, Ohio State, Penn State,
Pennsylvania, Princeton, Syracuse,
Wisconsin and Yale held reunions
during the week of the convention.