Character can be made black as easily, but not as easily restored, as
the skin of the lady mentioned in the extract below:
A celebrated Parisian belle, says the _Popular Science News_,
who had acquired the habit of whitewashing herself, so to
speak, from the soles of her feet to the roots of her hair,
with chemically-prepared cosmetics, one day took a medicated
bath, and on emerging from it she was horrified to find herself
as black as an Ethiopian. The transformation was complete;
not a vestige of the “supreme Caucasian race” was left. Her
physician was sent for in alarm and haste. On his arrival he
laughed immoderately and said, “Madame, you are not ill, you
are a chemical product. You are no longer a woman, but you are
a ‘sulfid.’ It is not now a question of medical treatment,
but a simple chemical reaction. I shall subject you to a bath
of sulfuric acid diluted with water. The acid will have the
honor of combining with you; it will take up the sulfur, the
metal will produce a ‘sulfurate,’ and we shall find as a
‘precipitate’ a very pretty woman.” The good-natured physician
went through with his reaction, and the belle was restored to
her membership with the white race.
(251)
=Blasted Hopes=--See DISAPPOINTMENT.
=Bleeding in Old Times=--See SURGERY, IMPROVEMENT IN.