Dog-urine was prescribed to restore the color of the hair.—(Avicenna, vol. ii. p. 333, a 50.)

“Alopecia” (baldness) was cured by mouse-dung (idem, vol. i. p. 360, b 50), and by “stercus caprarum.”—(Idem, vol. i. p. 389, b 53.)

“Urina canis putrefacta conservat nigredinem capillorum.”—(Idem, vol. ii. p. 333, a 50.)

Réclus says that even now, in Paris, many people who have within reach the best of toilet waters prefer to use urine as a detersive.—(See “Les Primitifs,” p. 72, “Les Inoits Occidentaux.”)

The Ove-herero, living south of Angola, West Africa, rub their bodies with dry cow-dung to impart lustre.—(“Muhongo,” interpreted by Rev. Mr. Chatelain.)

“Aqua omnium florum” was distilled from the dung of cows dropped in the month of May. “Verno seu Maiali tempore ... ex stercore recenti vaccæ herbas depascentis.” (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 249.) “Ex hoc ipso stercore, eodem modo atque ex stercore humano per digestionem et sublimationem, repetitam potest preparari Zibethum Occidentale, sic dictum a Paracelso, quoniam suavem spirat instar Zibethi. Destillatur aqua ex hoc stercore quæ vocatur aqua omnium florum, quia bos innumeris floribus vescitur; hæc aqua omnium florum est singulare cosmeticum applicatum externe delendis nævis et maculis in facie.”—(Etmuller, vol. ii. pp. 249, 250.)

Some people added to this a “water distilled from the sperm of frogs.”—(Idem, vol. ii. p. 171, 172.)

Catamenial blood was supposed to be a remedy for pimples on the face. (Idem, p. 265.) In portions of Northern Mexico the women apply it to their faces as a beautifier.

Cow-dung was very generally relied upon in this sense. The dung of a black cow entered into the composition of the celebrated “Eau de Mille Fleurs.” The ordure of small lizards was also used to smooth out the wrinkles from the faces of old women.

Fox-dung and the dung of sparrows and starlings were in use for softening the hands. Arabian women use as a cosmetic a mixture of saffron and chicken-dung. Cow-dung is sometimes as aromatic as musk. It used to be employed to restore the odor to old and faded musk, or to hang the latter in a privy, where it would re-acquire its former strength; but would not retain it long (see under “Latrines”).

To improve the complexion Paullini recommended a water distilled from human excrements; also the worms that grow therein distilled to a water. The cosmetic of country wenches is their own urine.

Human excrements have peculiar salts more strengthening and useful than soap. A young girl improved her complexion wonderfully by washing her face in cow-dung and drinking her brother’s urine fresh and warm, while fasting (pp. 263, 264).

Other cosmetics commended by Paullini were human ordure, externally; the ordure of a young boy, internally; “Eau de Millefleurs,” the excreta of lizards, crocodiles, foxes, sparrows, starlings, chickens, or of cows gathered in May, externally.

See also pages 172, 207.

For the eradication of freckles Paullini also recommended the external application of the excrement of donkeys, dogs, chickens, crocodiles, foxes, or pigeons.

Schurig was a champion of “Aqua ex stercore distillata,” for all facial embellishment.—(“Chylologia,” p. 762.)

“Il y a plus; les femmes les plus belles s’en sont barbouillé le visage, et Saint Jérome le reproche durement aux dames de son temps.” In a footnote is added this explanation: “On a employé des excrémens de quelques lézards d’Egypte comme cosmétique, à cause de leur odeur musquée.” (“Bib. Scat.,” p. 21.) “Merde de Lézard c’est le cordilea, excrément du stellion du Levant, employé comme cosmétique.”—(Idem, p. 123.)

“Wash the face with the diaper on which a new-born babe has urinated for the first time, it will remove freckles.”—(Cape Breton, Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, Cambridge, Mass.)

This belief in the cosmetic power of the first renal discharge of a child is generally diffused all over the United States.

“Enfin, les nourrices entre nous, ont l’habitude de frotter la figure de leurs nourrissons avec les langes imbibés de leur urine. Cela les fait venir beau, disent-elles, cela combat en tout cas, certaines efflorescences cutanées chez les enfants, par l’ammoniaque.”—(Personal letter from Doctor Bernard, Cannes, France.)

Prof. Patrice de Janon states that the ladies of his native place, Carthagena, South America, to his personal knowledge, were in the habit of using their own urine as a face lotion, and to beautify and soften the skin.

Horse-dung was another face lotion.—(“A Rich Storehouse or Treasurie for the Diseased,” Ralph Blower, London, 1616, p. 106.)

Goose-dung is in repute in the State of Indiana for removing pimples.—(Mrs. Bergen.)

Mr. Sylvester Baxter says that young women in Massachusetts, at least until very recently, have employed human urine as a wash for the preservation of the complexion.

“Water that stands in the concavity of a patch of cow-dung” is the belief in Walden, Mass., according to Mrs. Bergen, who thus shows a transplantation of the same belief which has lingered in Europe from remote ages.