Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/107

 The color of the ear should be as light as that of the surrounding flesh, or verge slightly on the pink. But it is not uncommon to see ears with a constant redness, very inconsistent with the demands of cosmetic art. Sometimes this arises from injuries, such as frequent pinching or pulling, more frequently it is the unpleasant memento of some sleigh ride or other exposure to the cold. The tips of the ear are readily frost-bitten, and then acquire this heightened, unhealthy hue. It may be concealed by dusting with French chalk, but it is better to remedy it by washing the parts evening and morning with a lotion made by dissolving a teaspoonful of alum and a teaspoonful of borax in half a pint of rose-water, and two tablespoonfuls of tincture of benzoin.

Injuries not unfrequently mar the symmetry of the ear, and there are various malformations to which it is subject. Most of these can be partly or quite restored by the resources of cosmetic surgery, and no one should hesitate to seek such assistance. It is not worth while to detail at length what these various malformations are, as they are only too readily recognized. Even when the ear is in part or altogether absent, the case is not desperate. An "artificial ear" can be made of vulcanized rubber, or other material, tinted the color of the flesh, and attached to the side of the head with such deftness that its character will escape every ordinary eye. In all cases where there