Female Beauty - Or, the Art of Human Decoration and the Art of Pleasing #263434

Refer especially to the use of' baths, lotions, a choice of clothing, and certain habits of domestic life. After Aspasia, one must cite Cleopatra, to whom is attributed a little Work dedicated to women, containing a large number of recipes for cosmetics. The fathers of medicine did not disdain to give a place in their writings to this science, so often dishonored by quacks. Here and there are noticed the curious ideas of Moschion, Her aclitus of Tarentum, Aétius, and Galen. The question was often discussed if the art of preserving beauty was essentially and ex elusively the domain of quackery; or if, on the contrary, it touched medicine in certain limits, or even took an important place in it. Doubt is impossible on this point, if one consults very serious authorities, who have declared its rationality and scientific value, which may be called the treatment of beauty. Without doubt, a great number of works written on this subject have only occasioned the employment of useless, if not dangerous, drugs. This circumstance is to be regretted.