harmonize or match with the
costume. Queen Elizabeth had over eighty. Think of purple hair? Yet some
dyes give a purple tinge to the locks.

DYED HAIR.--Dyed hair is a sorry makeshift at best. Far better let nature
have her way. There is but one hair-dye that is not positively harmful,
this is henna, and its use entails no end of trouble because it must be
frequently renewed,--some use it every day.

To prepare the dye, get a quarter pound of henna leaves; to this add two
quarts of cold water. Let stand on the back of the range where it will
steep slowly for four or five hours. Add three ounces of alcohol and
bottle. Apply with a tooth-brush. It gives a sort of reddish-brown color.
Women whose hair is prematurely gray often use this, declaring their white
hair prevents them from obtaining or holding business positions. But where
hair has whitened prematurely there is always a freshness and vitality
about eyes and complexion that bespeaks youth.

Physicians strongly deprecate the use of hair dyes. No matter how
strenuously the label insists on "absolute harmlessness," the dye relies
for its effectiveness upon the presence of lead in some chemical
combination. The frequent application of lead to the scalp induces a
certain dangerous form of poisoning, which results in paralysis. If "dye
you must," pin your faith to henna.

[796 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

GRAY HAIR.--"The only thing to do with gray hair is to admire it." This is
true. Nothing so sets off an aged face like the crown of silver. To color
it is a great mistake. There is absolutely no cure for it; the one thing
we can do is to make it a beauty. Gray hair is due to the exhaustion of
the pigment or coloring cells of the hair, supposed to be occasioned by
the lack of a regular supply of blood.

For the progressive whitening of the hair due to the advance of age,
curative agents are rarely of any avail, especially if the trouble is
hereditary. Not that gray hair and baldness are handed down from father to
son, but that the peculiarities of constitution which produce them are
inherent in both. Nervousness, neuralgia, a low physical condition, aid
the falling and blanching of the hair, and the victim should build up the
general system. Preparations of iron and sulphur, taken internally, are
supposed to supply certain elements of growth and pigment-forming power to
the hair.

A solution of iron for external application to the hair, calls for two
drams each of citra