Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/103

 and brilliancy, the second expands the pupil and imparts a fascinating fulness and mellowness to the eye.

Or, again, they take—

But no! our conscience checks us, and we are not going to reveal any more such injurious arts. For injurious they are, as well as dangerous, resulting certainly, if used too often, in impairment of the vision. Let them be left, therefore, to those who make a living by their charms, to actresses, and the belles of the boulevards.

We have known some ladies before going to a ball swallow a teaspoonful of ether (æther sulphuricus, U. S. P.). This is a powerful nervous stimulant, and causes the eye to glitter and sparkle, but it, too, is not to be recommended.

Certain slightly pungent and volatile perfumes, such as the oil of thyme and the oil of bitter almonds (which contains prussic acid), are occasionally worn on the handkerchief in order to produce a similar effect. But a healthy eye needs no such aids, and a diseased one is better without them.

A wiser course to improve the expression is by avoiding unseemly habits, such as winking, opening widely the lids, and so forth, and by studying, before a mirror if need be, the management of the ocular muscles. In society, avoid either staring fixedly at a person, looking around constantly, or shunning to meet another's gaze. Allow the eye to lighten up with sym