DEPILATORY

( Depilatoire , Fr.; Ent haar ens mit tel , Germ.) is the name of any substance capable of removing hairs from the human skin without injuring its texture. They act either mechanically or chemically. The first are commonly glutinous plasters formed of pitch and rosin, which stick so closely to the part of the skin where they are applied, that when removed, they tear away the hairs with them. This method is more painful, but le dangerous than the other, which consists in the solvent action of a menstruum, so energetic as to penetrate the pores of the skin, and destroy the bulbous roots of the hairs. This is composed either of caustic alkalis, sulphuret of baryta, or arsenical preparations. Certain vegetable juices have also been recommended for the same purpose; as spurge and acacia. The bruised eggs of ants have likewise been prescribed. But the oriental rusma yields to nothing in depilatory power. Gadet de Gas sin court has published in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Medic a les , the following recipe for preparing it. Mix two ounces of quicklime, with half an ounce of orpiment or realgar, (sulphuret of arsenic;) boil that mixture in one pound of strong alkaline lye, then try its strength by dipping a feather into it, and when the flue falls off, the rusma is quite strong enough. It is applied to the human skin by a momentary friction, followed by washing with warm water. Such a caustic liquid should be used with the greatest circumspection, beginning with it somewhat diluted. A soap is sometimes made with lard and the above ingredients; or soft soap is combined with them; in either case to form a depilatory pommade. Occasionally one ounce of orpiment is taken to eight ounces of quicklime, or two to twelve, or three to fifteen; the last mixture being of course the most active. Its causticity may be tempered by the addition of one eighth of starch or rye flour, so as to form a soft paste, which being laid upon the hairy spot for a few minutes, usually carries away the hairs with it. The rusma should never be applied but to a small surface at a time, for independently of the risk of corroding the skin, dangerous consequences might ensue from absorption of the arsenic.