DEPILATORY, is the name of any substance capable of removing hairs from the human skin without injuring its tex ture. They act either mechanically or chemically. The first are commonly glu tinous plasters formed of pitch and resin, which stick so closely to the part of the skin where they are applied, that when removed, they tear away the hairs with them. This method is more painful, but less dangerous than the other, which consists in the solvent action of a men struum, so energetic as to penetrate the pores of the skin, and destroy the bulb one roots of the hairs. This is com posed either of caustic alkalies, sulphuret of baryta, or arsenical preparations. Cer tain vegetable juices have also been re commended for the same purpose ; as spurge and acacia. The bruised eggs of ants have likewise been prescribed. But the oriental rusinct yields to nothing in depilatory power. Gadet de Gassincourt has published in the Dietionitaire des Seienees Iteedicales, the following recipe for preparing it.
Mix two ounces of quicklime with half an ounce of orpiment or realgar, (sulphu ret of arsenic ;) boil that mixture in one pound of strong alkaline ley, then try its strength by digging a feather into it, and when the flue falls off, the manta is quite strong enough. It is applied to the hu
man skin by,a momentary friction, fol lowed by washing with warm water. Such a caustic liquid should be used with the greatest circumspection, beginning with it somewhat diluted. A soap is sometimes made with lard and the above ingredients ; or soft soap is combined with them ; in either case to form a depi latory pommade. Occasionally one ounce of orpiment is taken to eight ounces of quicklime, or two to twelve, or three to fifteen; the last mixture being of course the most active. Its causticity may be tempered by the addition of one-eighth of starch or rye flour, so as to form a soft paste, which being laid upon the hairy spot for a few minutes, usually carries away the hairs with it.