ingredients,
the cost of combining them, and the maker's just profit, but he also
pays the exploiter's bills for advertising and distributing the
finished product. With such standard remedies as those mentioned
above, this added cost is usually a good investment for the purchaser,
because trade-marked remedies which have "made good" possess two
advantages over those less advertised, and over their prototypes in
crude form: procurability and integrity.

Even at remote cross-roads stores, it is possible to obtain a popular
remedy, one which has been well pushed commercially. And an article
sold in packages sealed by the makers gets to the consumer just as
pure as when it left the laboratory. This is not always true of
ingredients held in bulk by the retailer; witness the evidence
brought forward in recent prosecutions for drug adulteration.

It is not the purpose of this chapter, in any sense, to advertise or
place the seal of its unrestricted approval upon any one article of a
class. Its position in the matter is absolutely impartial. But in
order that it may be as helpful as possible, it definitely mentions
the most widely known, and therefore the most easily obtainable,
remedies. There are other equally good remedies in each case, but as
it would be almost impossible to mention each individual remedy with
similar virtues now on the market, the ones discussed must be taken as
representative of their class in each instance.

Do not forget that the use of these simple remedies does not justify
their abuse. They may make great claims while their use is really
limited. Do not rely upon them to do the impossible.

=Vaseline.=--This is pure and refined petroleum, and will be found of
much service in many forms of skin irritation. It is useful in the
prevention of "chapping," for softening rough skin, for preventing and
healing bleeding and cracked lips, as a protective dressing in burns,
cuts, or any acute inflammation of the skin where the cuticle has been
injured or destroyed, or where it is desirable that a wound should be
protected and kept closed from the air. Rubbed over the surface of the
body when a patient is desquamating or "peeling" after scarlet fever
or measles, it keeps the skin smooth, soothes the itching, and
prevents the scales from being carried about in the air and so
infecting others. Vaseline is a soothing, nonirritating, and bland
protective ointment for external use. It is perfectly harmless, but