ften eight or ten pounds a year were
paid for the care of a single wig. Wigmakers' materials were expensive
also--"wig ribans, cauls, curling pipes, sprigg wyers, and wigg steels;"
and were advertised in vast numbers that show the universal prevalence
of the fashion.

By the beginning of this century, women--having powdered and greased and
pulled their hair almost off their heads--were glad to wear their
remaining locks a-la-Flora or a-la-Virginia, or to wear wigs to simulate
these styles. We find Eliza Southgate Bowne writing thus to her mother
from Boston in the year 1800:

"... Now Mamma what do you think I am going to ask for? A WIG.
Eleanor Coffin has got a new one just like my hair and only 5
dollars. I must either cut my hair or have one. I cannot dress it
at all _stylish_. Mrs. Coffin bought Eleanor's and says that she
will write to Mrs. Sumner to get me one just like it. How much time
it will save--in one year! We could save it in pins and paper,
besides the _trouble_. At the Assembly I was quite ashamed of my
head, for nobody had long hair. If you will consent to my having
one do send me over a 5 dollar bill by the post immediately after
you receive this, for I am in hopes to have it for the next
Assembly--do send me word immediately if you can let me have one."

This persuasive appeal was successful, for frequent references to the
wig appear in later letters.

Though false teeth and the fashion of filling the teeth were known even
by the ancient Egyptians, the science of dentistry is a modern one. But
little care of the teeth was taken in early colonial days, and the
advice given for their preservation was very simple:

"If you will keep your teeth from rot, plug, or aking, wash the
mouth continually with Juyce of Lemons, and afterwards rub your
teeth with a Sage Leaf and Wash your teeth after meat with faire
water. To cure Tooth Ach. 1. Take Mastick and chew it in your mouth
until it is as soft as Wax, then stop your teeth with it, if
hollow, there remaining till it's consumed, and it wil certainly
cure you. 2. The tooth of a dead man carried about a man presently
suppresses the pains of the Teeth."

I suppose this latter ghoulish cure would not affect the teeth of a
woman; if, however, a seventeenth or eighteenth century dame could cure
the toothache simply with a plug of mastic, she was much to be envied by