Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/108

 is any defect in the form, color, or position of the ear, it behooves a person to study with especial care the arrangement of the hair best suited to conceal that misfortune.

PIERCING THE EAR, AND EARRINGS.

In England the custom of wearing earrings or pendants has fallen considerably into disuse in the best circles during the last ten years, but with us the large majority of young ladies adhere to it. The operation of piercing the ears which they undergo is too often left to the jeweller or some friend to perform. The result is that it is nothing very uncommon to find it productive of troublesome consequences. A learned professor of surgery states, in a recent work, that he has seen five cases where large and troublesome tumors in the lobe of the ear were caused in this way, and we could easily quote more than one instance recorded in medical literature where even death resulted.

It is wiser, therefore, to have it performed by a medical man, who will take into account the constitution of the girl, the state of her health, and the season of the year, so as to avoid every possible danger. He will also complete it almost without pain by means of some apparatus for suspending sensation in the part.

The proper procedure is to mark the exact spot with a pen, choosing it near the middle of the lobe.