neighbour, and so presented him to the
committee; the committee, with their lenses and
microscopes, could see no difference between
the young man's case and Madame Z.'s. Chemical
tests had the same result; there was a complete
similitude of characters. If you put a good
dose of koheuil into your eye, and then writhe
and twist yourself until you perspire, and wink,
and give your face convulsive twitches, you will
shortly exhibit a beautiful instance of chromidrosis.
If the reader doubt, a single trial will
convince him of the excellence of the preparation.

To complete the case, it only remained to
discover under what common form this colouring
matter was employed in the recipes of these
diverse cosmetics. The task was not easy; it
was, in fact, the fathoming of a deep secret.
Fortunately, M. Béhier had friendly relations
with the proprietor of one of the largest
manufactories of perfumery in Paris, the house of
Violet, who had the kindness to furnish accurate
information as well as the requisite ingredients,
believing that he was thereby rendering a service
to scientific truth. The supplementary and
odoriferous substances employed as vehicles constitute
the commercial secret, and there is no need
to mention them; but nobody's interests will
suffer from the announcement that the colouring
matter of Indian Pigment, Pyrommée, Koheuil,
and Mysterious Pencils, is simply—lamp-black!
Chromidrosis, ends, literally, in smoke.

M. Robin ascertained, on one person affected
with chromidrosis, the presence of a substance
offering a blue coloration. Black pigments are
not the only ones prepared by perfumers.
Besides China rouge and the different liquid and
other paints, Court rouge, Plessis rouge, Rouge
de Carthame Hespéridé; besides white of fleurs-
de-lys, fleurs-de-lys water, pearl-white achromatised or
chromatised, straw-coloured, rose, and
demi-rose; besides carnation and carmine
pommade, employed to give to the lips of these
painted faces the vivacity of a coral tint; there
is also fabricated a composition to imitate the
veins on the skin, which is sold under the name
of Azure Network. Indigo is the foundation of
these false veins; and M. Robin might find
indigo on his patients' eyelids without the
occurrence of a miracle.

It has happened that the same, or about the
same, scientific discoveries and inventions have
been made at about the same time by different
persons in different places; such likewise has
been the case with the fair inventors of chromidrosis.
It is a disputed honour who was the
first to appear with a face like a half-washed
chimney-sweep. Some years ago. Dr. Spring,
Professor at the University of Liege, was
consulted respecting the daughter of a high
functionary, who presented the most magnificent
example of chromidrosis you could wish to
see. On each side of her face she had a large
black spot extending from her cheek bones to
her eyes. She was fifteen years of age, had
been carefully brought up, had never been
ill, and had never had anything to vex her
in her life. She had nothing to excite her
imagination, and had never heard speak of
chromidrosis. Still, as her epitaph might one
day say, "Chromidrosis sore long time she bore;
Physicians were in vain." They formed the most
ingenious theories, and left the patient's cheeks
indelibly sable.

Dr. Spring commenced his treatment of the
inky lady by the application of a large dose of
incredulity. He found that the substance
exuded and secreted was graphite, or black-
lead, the same which brightens our stoves and
makes our pencils mark. How could a pretty
girl contrive to produce a mineral? How,
indeed? To discover whether the black was
really a secretion, the doctor one evening cleaned
her eyelids and cheeks; and under the pretence
of applying a remedy which must prove infallible,
he coated them with a stratum of collodion.
Next morning, the eyes were as black as ever,
only the pigment was found outside and upon
the collodion, and not between the collodion and
the skin. No secretion, therefore, but outward
application! Where the damsel hid her store
of black-lead, and how she applied it, mattered
little to the doctor, thus convinced that its
source did not lie below the epidermis. He
advised the parents to travel with their daughter,
to take her to pleasant watering-places, and to
change the air and the scene entirely. Since
then, the fair one has had no more graphite
patches on her face.

And yet some people like to believe a thing
because it is absurd. M. de Méricourt and a
few staunch followers are still convinced that
there is such a disease as chromidrosis!

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