Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/153

 diseases within the nostrils, or the throat, or from several of these causes combined.

Unfortunate, indeed, is the young lady who is thus made an object of disgust to her social companions. It is her duty to herself and to society to use every self-denial, every resource in her power to remedy this defect. The most polite of men cannot overcome their aversion so long as it continues.

It is related of Benserade, court poet of Louis XIV., that he was obliged on one occasion to stand close to a lady whose breath was unpleasant, while she was singing a piece of her own composition. When she had finished, a bystander asked the poet what he thought of the piece and the artist.

"Mademoiselle," he replied, "has an excellent voice, her words are well-chosen, but her air is frightful."

The pun was not lost on those who happened to be in front of the singer.

Worse consequences may ensue than to become the target of unfeeling jests. We know the instance of a physician who lost one after another of his cases of confinement, until the number was over forty. They all succumbed to puerperal fever. He took every conceivable precaution; bathed, shaved even his hair, left the city for a week, all in vain. The reason was he had that disease "ozæna," which we have previously described, and into whatever room he entered, he carried a breath that poisoned its atmosphere.