who are clumsy
manipulators, and to the more extensive use of them than of other hair
dyes.

The salts of silver above referred to are more rapid in their action
as hair dyes than those containing lead. It is only necessary to wash
the hair quite clean and free from grease, then to moisten it with a
weak solution of one of them, and, lastly, to expose it to the light,
to effect the object in view. Sunlight will fully darken it in a few
minutes, but in diffused daylight it will take two or three hours, or
longer, to acquire the deepest shade. To avoid this delay and
inconvenience, the common practice is, a few minutes after applying
the silver solution, to moisten or wet the hair with a solution of
sulphuret of potassium, or of hydrosulphuret of ammonia. The effect is
immediate, and the full depth of shade which a silver solution of the
strength employed is capable of imparting is at once produced. A few
minutes later and the hair and skin may be rinsed with tepid water,
gently wiped dry, and the hair finally adjusted with the comb. The
effect of its application, its rapid action, and the satisfactory
nature of the effect produced, all tend to render a solution of
nitrate of silver the favorite hair dye of those who have sufficient
skill and steadiness of hand to use it properly.

It will be useful here to inform the inexperienced reader that all
solutions and compounds which contain nitrate of silver stain the skin
as well as the hair, if they be allowed to touch it. These stains may
be removed, when quite recent, by rubbing them with a piece of rag or
sponge wetted with a weak solution of potassium, of hydrosulphuret of
ammonia, or of iodide of potassium; but as this is attended with some
trouble and inconvenience, the best way is to avoid the necessity of
having recourse to it. The hairdressers commonly adopt the plan of
smearing hard pomatum or cosmetique over the skin immediately
surrounding the hair to be operated upon, in order to protect it from
the dye. By very skillful manipulation, and the observance of due
precautions, the hair may be thoroughly moistened with the silver
solution without touching the adjacent skin; but this can only be done
when the hair of the head is under treatment by a second party.

In reference to the tone and shades of color given by the substances
commonly employed to dye the hair, it may be useful to state that the
shades given by preparations of _iron_ and _bismuth_ range from d