The use of electricity in the removal of superfluous hair : and the treatment of various facial blemishes / by George Henry Fox.

Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The use of electricity in the removal of superfluous hair : and the treatment of various facial blemishes / by George Henry Fox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    io perhaps add jocosely that it is not likely to cause death. Such an opinion never satisfies the patient, for no woman every yet derived consolation from the fact that ugliness is not fatal. Furthermore, the opin- ion is not sound. This abnormal growth of hair is not always a trifling matter. It may not kill the patient, it is true, but it is certain to occasion great annoyance. It is very apt to affect her disposition, and to injure her prospects in life, especially if she be young and unmarried; and it may eventually ruin both her health and her happiness by producing a mental disquietude which in many instances verges on melancholia. The frequent occurrence of facial hairi- ness among insane women has been observed by several writers, and although in such cases the insanity has usually preceded the abnormal growth of hair, I have no doubt that in many instances the mental worry caused by slight facial hairiness has acted as an exciting cause, and served to develop an insane ten- dency. Dr. J. C. White mentions the case of a lady who searched long for a surgeon who would flay the lower part of her face, and thus remove the obnoxious growth. I have certainly treated one or two females who were monomaniacs on the subject of their facial hairiness, even when this has been very slight, and the most satisfactory result of treatment in these cases has been the improvement in general health which has followed the removal of the hair, which served to make their lives unhappy. (See case n)