HUMAN HAIR: 
 
 TS STRUCTURE, GROWTH, DISEASES, 
 
 AND THETR 
 
 TREATMENT. 
 
 EllustratctJ bw Mooti ^ngra&ntgs. 
 
 BY 
 
 ^KMA^A BKEGEL, M.D., ^i.::.l. .P. Lond. 
 
 'HVSIClASr TO THE METKOPOLITAX FUEE HOSPiTAL, 10 THK FAKRlNCfDr 
 
 AND TO TKK ST. PAECRA8 DISPEWSAUIES ; 
 
 MT=;MnEK O" THE PATH07.00ICAL, CMMCaL, OBPTETRtCAL, AXr> 
 
 niTj<Ti;RiAy cont-, ii'S, vrr. tn . 
 
 i 
 
 HENRY I KNSHAW 
 
 356, S T K AND, L O N 
 
 180*9. 
 
 Price Two SliilUitga and Sii'penff\ 
 
 m 
 
flOLnrv uBRAIf 
 
.. r^.si rim^i 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
THE 
 
 HUMAN HAIR: 
 
 ITS STRUCTURE, GROWTH, DISEASES, 
 
 AND THEIR 
 
 TREATMENT. 
 
 Ellustratrt lis SEaootf CEngrabings. 
 
 BY 
 
 HERMANN BEIGBL, M.D., M.K.C.P. Lond. 
 
 PHYSICIAN TO THE METBOPOLITAN FKEE HOSPITAI,, TO THE rAKEINGDOlf 
 
 AND TO THE ST. PANCEAS DISPENSAHIES; 
 
 MBMBEB OF THE PATHOLOGICAL, CLINICAL, OBSTETBICAL, AND 
 
 HUNTEBIAN aOCIETIKS, ETC. ETC. 
 
 HENRY RENSHAW, 
 356, STRAND, LONDON. 
 
 1869. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 SAVILL, KDWAEDS AND CO., PRINTERS, CHANDOS STBKET, 
 
 COVEKT GARDEN, 
 
 WOinBY IIBRAI7 
 
L(4 
 
 TO 
 
 DR. ERNEST HALLIBR, 
 
 PBOFESSOB OF BOTAKT AT THE T7K1VBESITX OF JENA, 
 
 IN ADMIEATION OF HIS GREAT TALENT 
 IN THE INVESTIGATION OF MISCBOSCOPIC LIFE, 
 
 THIS LITTLE WORK IS 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 iv-3(;csr6 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The human hair being an ornament which it is ahnost 
 everybody's endeavour to preserve inviolate as long as 
 possible, it is expUcable, why the fear of losing that 
 ornament has become a matter of speculation of char- 
 latanism on the credulity of the public. The best 
 means of confounding the designs of such speculations, 
 is the statement of real facts, distributing thus the 
 light of knowledge. 
 
 The following pages are intended to be a popular 
 treatise, aiming at showing that the laws by which the 
 life of the hair is governed differ not from the laws to 
 which the body at large is subject, and that deviations 
 of normal development must be considered — as is the 
 case in other organs — as disease and treated as such. 
 Although this little book aims — as already mentioned — 
 at being a popular treatise, yet E hope that some of 
 the chapters may interest even those who have a know- 
 ledge of the subject, I allude to the chapter on the 
 chignon-fungus, and to that on cracking of the 
 
 hair, &c. 
 
 H. Beigel, M.D. 
 
 3, Finsbury Square, 
 
 2^th December, 1868. 
 
TABLE or CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 Julius Caesar's laurel — Samson and Delilah — " Baldhead" a 
 term of reproach — Shaving the head, and the Hebrews — 
 Customs of the Arabs — Custom in Greece — The Church 
 against long hair — Pope Anicetus — St. Wulstan — Serlo 
 and Henry I. — Books against long hair — Oriental notions 
 on the beauty of hair — Customs in Rome — The ancient 
 Britons — The Prankish kings — The present hair trade. 
 
 pp. 1—16 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 Its importance in the study of the natural laws — ^Description of 
 the microscope — The focal distance — Linear and super- 
 ficial enlargement pp. 17 — 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SKIN, AND HOW THE HAIR IS FIXED IN IT. 
 
 The hair, influenced by a diseased state of the skin — Micro- 
 scopical appearances of a section of the skin — The skin 
 compared to the soil of the streets of large cities — The 
 epidermis — The Malpighian layer — The Corium — The 
 glands of the skin — Insensible perspiration — Sweat — 
 The value of the perspiratory system. . , pp.24 — 31 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE OF THE HAfR. 
 
 The hair sac — The root-sheath — Method of preparation for 
 microscopical examination — The double knife — The cuti- 
 cle — The cortical substance — The medullary substance — 
 Air contained in the hair — Elasticity of the human hair 
 — The temple "Veneris calvse" at Eome . pp. 32 — 53 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAIR. 
 
 The first rudiments of hair in the embryo — Formation of 
 the structorless membrane — The cells within this mem- 
 brane — Illustration of the mode of developement — 
 The Lanugo — Shedding of the newly formed hair — The 
 hair is not a dead substance — Whether hair, when once 
 lost, can grow again ? — The number of hairs on a square 
 inch — The rapidity of growth pp. 54 — 61 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ABNORMAL GROWTH OF THE HAIR. 
 
 Universal Hypertrichosis — Local Hypertrichosis — Instances 
 of excessive growth of hair — The hairy family at Ava — 
 A hairy girl observed in St. Bartholomew's hospital — Dar- 
 win on the connexion of baldness and deficiency of teeth 
 — The hairy men of Yesso pp. 62 — 90 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR — OF SUDDEN BLEACHING OF 
 THE HAIR. 
 
 Conditions on which the colour of the hair depends — Remark- 
 able condition of the colour of the hair, forming white and 
 brown ringlets— Similar cases observed by Dr. Landois 
 and Mr. Erasmus Wilson — Dr. Landois' explanation of a 
 case of sudden bleaching of the hair — Blue hair. 
 
 pp. 91—104 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTEE Yin. 
 
 INFLATION AND CRACKING OF THE HAIR. 
 
 Whether the hair can become diseased — Illustration of a case 
 of inflated and cracked hair pp.105 — 110 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CHIGNON-FUNGTJS. 
 
 What is a Gregarine ? — What Professor Lindemann of Peters- 
 burgh had seen and considered to be Gregarines — Pro- 
 fessor Hallier's researches pp. Ill — 122 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A NEW DISEASE OF THE HAIR-SAC. 
 
 Illustration of a case — Knots on the hair-shaft — Explanation 
 of their origin pp. 123 — 125 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 MATTED HAIR — PLICA POLONICA. 
 
 Of what the Plica consists — DijBFerent kinds of Plica — Shakes- 
 peare on the disease — Two cases observed in England. 
 
 pp. 126—132 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BALDNESS — ALOPECIA. 
 
 Description of the disease — DiflFerent forms of the disease — 
 Juvenile baldness — Loss of hair in old people — On the 
 treatment of alopecia pp. 133 — 140 
 
 CHAPIER XIII. 
 
 MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR — HAIR DYES. 
 
 Secret preparations and general credulity — Prescriptions for 
 oils and pomatums— On hair dyes — Rossiter's hair re- 
 storer; its composition pp. 141 — 152. 
 
THE HUMAN HAIE 
 
 IN 
 
 A STATE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 From the remotest times, and by aU nations, 
 great importance has been attached to that ap- 
 pendix of the human body which is considered 
 one of its finest ornaments; Julius Csesar, the 
 great Roman General, who, unfortunately, 
 was bald-headed, considered therefore — ac- 
 cording to the Roman historian Suetonius — 
 of all the honours bestowed upon him by the 
 Senate, that as the greatest, by virtue of which 
 permission was granted to him to wear per- 
 manently his laurel in order to cover his defi- 
 ciency of hair. 
 
 A head densely grown with hair has always 
 been considered as a symbol of vigour and 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 strength. Thus Samson says to Delilah_, " There 
 
 hath not come a razor upon mine head 
 
 If I be shaven, then my strength mil go 
 from me, and I shall become weak, and be 
 like any other man/^ And, indeed, ^^ she 
 made him sleep upon her knees ; and she 
 called for a man, and she caused him to 
 shave off the seven locks of his head ; and 
 she began to afflict him, and his strength 
 went from him/^ 
 
 Accordingly, ^^baldhead^' was used as a 
 strong term of reproach. Thus 2nd Kings, 
 ii. 23, we read of Elisha, " And he went up 
 from thence unto Bethel : and as he was go- 
 ing up by the way, there came forth little 
 children out of the city, and mocked him, and 
 said unto him. Go up, thou baldhead ; go up, 
 thou baldhead.'^ But one of the most degrading 
 forms of expressing contempt amongst the 
 ancient Jews was plucking off the hair. We 
 find Nehemiah mentioning this as a punish- 
 ment inflicted upon those who had contracted 
 irregular marriages. 
 
 Shaving the head is often referred to by 
 the Hebrew prophets, denoting metaphorically 
 affliction, poverty, and disgrace. 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS, 
 
 We cannot therefore be astonislied that 
 war ensued from the offence given by the 
 Prince of the Ammonites to the delegates of 
 David in shaving off the one-half of their 
 beards. The natural thinness or want of hair 
 was the more dreaded because considered as 
 the first stage of lepra^ which excluded the 
 afflicted individual from society, beiog com- 
 pelled to live outside the precincts of the town. 
 
 The Arabs also consider a bald head as a 
 disgrace,, and therefore in the conclusion 
 of their oath, when accused of some crime, 
 they say : ^'^ If I have done it, then may the 
 Lord turn my locks into a bald head.^^ The 
 Arabs value their hair so highly that they 
 sacrifice it after each pilgrimage to Mecca in 
 the valley of Mina, which ceremony forms the 
 most solemn concluding act of the pil- 
 grimage. In Greece, it was likewise cus- 
 tomary to put the hair of a boy, when 
 becoming a youth, upon the altar of a tutelar 
 deity ; but this was done not only on the 
 occasion just mentioned, but before any other 
 serious or solemn undertaking — marriage, for 
 instance — ^before a long journey, going to war, 
 &c. On the graves of beloved ones the hair 
 b2 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 was laid down as a sacrifice^ which was called 
 the '^ mourning locks/^ 
 
 Thus the Levites — whose business it was 
 to give to the priests all necessary assistance 
 in the discharge of their duties^ and to keep 
 guard round the Tabernacle, and afterwards 
 round the Temple — cut their hair when initi- 
 ated into office, from which ceremony in the 
 Roman Catholic Church the tonsure is preserved 
 up to the present day. It consists in shaving 
 the crown of the head as a preparation for 
 orders, and the higher the degree of priesthood 
 the larger the tonsure that is required. It is 
 a curious fact that the Church was never favour- 
 able towards the wearing of long hair. Pope 
 Anicetus is said to have been the first who 
 forbade the clergy to wear long hair, but the 
 prohibition is of an older date in the churches 
 of the East. There is a canon still extant of 
 1096, importing that such as wore long hair 
 should be excluded from coming into church 
 while living, and not to be prayed for when 
 dead, and in France under Hugh Capet the 
 priests excommunicated aU who let their hair 
 grow. 
 
 St. Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, declaimed 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 with great vehemence against luxury of all 
 kinds^ but chiefly against long hair as most 
 criminal and most universal. " When any of 
 those vain people/' says William of Malmes- 
 bury, " bowed their heads before him, to 
 receive his blessing, before he gave it he cut a 
 lock of their hair with a little knife which he 
 carried about with him for that purpose, and 
 commanded them by way of penance of their 
 sins, to cut all the rest of their hair in the 
 same manner. If any of them refused to 
 comply with his command, he denounced the 
 most dreadful judgment upon them, reproached 
 them for their efieminacy, and foretold that, as 
 they imitated woman in the length of the hair, 
 they would imitate them in their cowardice 
 when their country was invaded, which was 
 accomplished at the landing of the Normans.'^ 
 Serlo, a Norman bishop, acquired great 
 honour by a sermon which he preached before 
 Henry I. in 1104, against long and curled 
 hair, with which the King and all his courtiers 
 were so much aff'ected, that they consented to 
 resign their flowing ringlets, of which they had 
 been so vain. The preaching prelate gave 
 them no time to change their minds, but im- 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS, 
 
 mediately pulled a pair of shears out of his 
 sleeve,, and performed the operation with his 
 own hand.* 
 
 Not only in the churches and confessionals 
 has war heen declared against long hair, but 
 public discussions were held and volumes written 
 about it. Thus, a professor of Utrecht in 1650, 
 wrote expressly on the question, whether it be 
 lawful for men to wear long hair? and ac- 
 counted for the negative. Another divine, 
 named Raves, who had written for the affirma- 
 tive, replied to him. Whether the intention to 
 exterminate long hair was dictated to old worn- 
 out priests and professors by envy of an or- 
 nament of which they were deprived by various 
 causes, is difficult to say ; but it is remarkable 
 that the early Egyptians, who were proverbial 
 for their habits of cleanliness, likewise removed 
 their hair as an incumbrance. All classes among 
 that people, including the foreign slaves, were 
 required to submit to this custom (Gen. xli. 
 14), and in place of Nature^s covering they 
 made use of wigs, the reticulated texture of 
 the groundwork on which the hair was fastened 
 
 The Loud. Encyclopsed." 1829. Art. Hair. 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 allowing free circulation^ while tlie hair effectu- 
 ally protected the head from the sun.* 
 
 According to Oriental notions the hair 
 must be black and dense in order to be con- 
 sidered beautiful. Thus we find in Solomon^s 
 Song (v. 11) — " His head is as the most fine 
 gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a 
 raven/^ 
 
 Other poets compare the maiden^s locks 
 more frequently to the dark night in which 
 her countenance shines brightly, like the silver 
 moon ; and wicked Jezebel knew already well 
 dressed hair to be a powerful help towards 
 good looks, for when she heard of Jehu^s 
 coming to Jezreel, she painted her face, and 
 attired her head, and looked out at a window 
 (2nd Kings, ix. 30). 
 
 We know from the New Testament, that 
 Mary did not consider her hair unworthy to 
 wipe the feet of Jesus with at Bethany. The 
 same was done to Him by the woman, the 
 sinner, in the Pharisee^s house : " She began 
 to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them 
 with the hairs of her head.^^ 
 
 * Wilkinson's " Anc. Egyptians," iii. 354. 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS, 
 
 It was a custom among the Greeks to hang 
 up the hair of their dead at the door to 
 prevent any one from defiling himself by- 
 entering the house. This is in close con- 
 nexion with another Greek custom of long 
 hair not only being a privilege of free men, 
 but its different lengths also denoting certain 
 positions in life. The Greeks, having the 
 most refined taste for everything that is 
 beautiful, considered the hair one of the finest 
 ornaments Nature has bestowed upon man, 
 and great attention was paid to its manage- 
 ment. The first and principal sign of thraldom 
 was, therefore, forfeit of the privilege of 
 wearing long hair. This is, in a certain 
 degree, preserved up to the present time, in 
 so far as the hair of prisoners at their entering 
 the gaol is cut short. Even the citizens of 
 Sparta, where all ornamental attire was pro- 
 hibited by law, could not part with the one 
 which they considered the gift of nature ; and 
 by the way in which their hair was cut, clan, 
 rank, and age could be recognised. When 
 Charillus was asked why the Spartans wore 
 long hair ? he replied, ^^ Because it is the 
 cheapest ornament.^^ Curly hair was particu- 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 larly esteemed in Athens,, and the hairdressers 
 were at that time already busy in giving it 
 artificially that shape, if it had not grown so 
 naturally. Contrary to the Oriental taste the 
 Greeks held fair hair as the finest ; and the 
 art of dyeing the hair, if not naturally light- 
 coloured, was in those times already a very 
 profitable business. 
 
 The Romans wore a long time the hair of 
 the beard without shaving or cutting it, and 
 the time is not exactly known when they 
 began to do it. Thus Livius seems to tell us, 
 that this custom was in use from the year 369, 
 for, speaking of Manlius Capitolinus, who was 
 taken prisoner, he relates that the greatest 
 part of the people being troubled at his im- 
 prisonment, changed their clothes and let their 
 beards and hair grow. If this were so, then 
 we may infer that out of time of mourning 
 they had their hair cut and their beards shaved. 
 Nevertheless Varro speaks clearly, that the first 
 barbers came out of Sicily to Rome in the year 
 454, and that a man called Ticinius Menas 
 brought them. From that time the young men 
 began to have their beards cut, and hair, till 
 they became forty-nine years old, but it was 
 
10 HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 not allowed to be done above that age^ says 
 Pliny. The day when young men were shaved 
 for the first time was a day of rejoicing, and 
 they were careful to put the hair of their 
 beard into a silver or gold box, and to make 
 an oflPering of it to some god, particularly to 
 Jupiter Capitolinus, as Nero did, according to 
 the testimony of Suetonius.* 
 
 The ancient Britons were proud of the 
 length and beauty of their hair, and were at 
 much pains in dressing it. A young warrior 
 who was taken prisoner, and condemned to be 
 beheaded, requested as the last and greatest 
 favour, that no slave might be permitted to 
 touch his hair, which was remarkably long and 
 beautiful, and that it might not be stained 
 with his blood. 
 
 Among the Frankish kings, says Gregory 
 of Tours, it was long the peculiar privilege of 
 the blood royal to have flowing locks, while 
 for all other persons there were gradations 
 in the lengths and peculiar cut of the hair, 
 according to the rank, from the noble down to 
 the close-cropped slave. When a prince was 
 
 * " Pantologia," vol. v. 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS. 11 
 
 excluded from the right of succession to the 
 crown^ his long locks were shorn to denote 
 that he was reduced to the condition of a 
 subject. From the time of Clovis^ the French 
 nobility wore the hair shorty but as they 
 grew less material they allowed it to grow 
 longer. 
 
 Long hair was the prevailing fashion at the 
 court of Francis I.^ when the king, proud of 
 the wound of his head, appeared with short 
 hair, and thereupon that style became general. 
 Long hair again came into vogue in the reign 
 of Louis XIIL, and as curling was found in- 
 convenient, wigs became fashionable. Then 
 followed the reign of hair-powder, perriwigs, 
 and perukes of enormous dimensions, which, 
 together with many other things no less pre- 
 posterous, were swept away in the tide of the 
 great French Revolution."^ 
 
 To refer to the customs of the different 
 nations concerning the hair would result in a 
 voluminous book, but the above remarks will 
 suffice to show that the part played by the hair 
 in ancient times has not been less important 
 
 " Encyclop. Britannic," vol. xi. 
 
12 HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 than it is at present. This does not only 
 hold good in respect to natural but also to arti- 
 ficial hair^ which was used not only by the 
 Egyptians, but also by the Greeks, the Cartha- 
 ginians, and especially by the Romans, amongst 
 whom the sale of human hair, particularly the 
 blond hair of Germany, was an ordinary species 
 of traffic. Dyeing the hair, too, was much prac- 
 tised by the Romans, and a kind of gold-dust 
 was used by the ladies who did not adopt 
 borrowed locks. Josephus relates that King 
 Solomon^s horseguards daily strewed their 
 heads with gold-dust which glittered in the 
 sun."^ 
 
 In the present time the artificial hair trade 
 has assumed great proportions, and I think the 
 subject is interesting enough to justify the 
 following extract from an article in the Daily 
 News : — 
 
 "The statistics of the false hair trade 
 furnish curious evidence of the increased and 
 increasing artificiality of the age. Male 
 wigs have gone out of fashion, and it is 
 the enormous quantities of false hair used by 
 
 Josephus, "Antiq.," viii. 7. 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS. 13 
 
 ladies whicli have caused the vast rise in 
 its price. This has gone np 400 per cent, 
 within the last dozen years, while four times 
 as much is used now as at that period. Sixteen 
 times as much money is consequently spent 
 upon this article of adornment in the present 
 year as was devoted to it in 1856, a suggestive 
 fact for the swains who are now admiring the 
 silken tresses of their fair partners in the 
 dance, or at the sea-side promenade. Those 
 who only know false hair from the curious 
 lumps of it in the hairdresser^s windows, and 
 from a general suspicion that they see it on 
 the heads of some of their friends, cannot form 
 a notion of the extent to which the trade in 
 it is carried on. It has wholesale dealers with 
 large warehouses, and skilled labourers con- 
 stantly at work. It is manufactured to meet 
 the wishes and the purses of all classes of 
 society, from the sixpenny frizette sold to fill 
 out the sparse locks of the servant-of-all-work, 
 to the ten-guinea head of hair made up to aid 
 the beauty of a duchess. The finest specimen 
 of this elderly hair will sell for as much as two 
 guineas an ounce ; while the very best black 
 or brown wiU sell from eighteen shillings to 
 
14 HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 one guinea^ and tlie best flaxen at about a 
 guinea and a-half. The latter variety is, be 
 the quality what it may, about fifty per cent, 
 dearer than black or brown hair, while white 
 or grey fetches more than the latter by 100 
 per cent. For it is unnecessary to say that 
 much of the hair sold is far less expensive than 
 that just quoted. Quality, colour, and length 
 determine its price, which ranges from a few 
 shillings an ounce upwards. After the hair 
 has been combed and washed and dried, it is 
 folded into oblong parcels, such as large skeins 
 of silk or worsted that are kept in the shops. 
 Fair Saxon hair is still greatly in demand, 
 and, as the stock of it must be kept up, many 
 of the other colours have to be stained to the 
 favourite hue. But dyeing hair is far less easy 
 when it has been cut from the head. The 
 natural perspiration of the human subject acts 
 with the chemical compounds used, and it is 
 the boast of the fashionable hairdresser that he 
 can change the hair to any colour by a few appli- 
 cations of his famous washes. The lady who 
 had stained her hair to what she considered 
 the fashionable colour had in many instances 
 attained a tinge unlike any other thing on 
 
HISTORICAL REMARKS. 15 
 
 earth. When, therefore, she wanted a new 
 chignon, or tresses to match her latest hue, 
 it was impossible to procure them. No shade 
 of flaxen but by the side of her own metallic 
 yellow would seem dull and flat ; and the only 
 way out of the difficulty was artificially to 
 stain the hair a gold until it looked as un- 
 natural as the hair growing. We should men- 
 tion that a considerable trade exists in false 
 beards, moustaches, and whiskers. During 
 the American war a vast number of these were 
 sent out to the United States, and a steady 
 demand continued until the peace. Our in- 
 formant did not profess to account either for 
 the sudden want of whiskers and beards, or 
 for its equally sudden cessation. But the fact 
 is curious, that the demand lasted as long as 
 the war, and gradually dropped off at its close. 
 The moustache and whisker, like the best wig 
 fronts and scalps, are based upon a fine net- 
 work of white hair, through which the skin of 
 the wearer shows, and a ' parting^ is secured 
 which fairly rivals Nature. Our investigations 
 have been made among some of the largest 
 wholesale dealers in human hair, as well as at 
 some of the most fashionable retail shops. 
 
16 HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
 
 Both abound in the metropolis. The penalty 
 of such inquiries is_, that they inevitably leave 
 a hideous doubt upon the mind of the reality 
 of the curls^ or chignons, or tresses. When 
 art imitates Nature so wonderfully, and where 
 — as figures and professional witnesses prove 
 to us — a large proportion of the female popu- 
 lation avail themselves of art, it becomes ex- 
 ceedingly difficult to draw the line between 
 the two. After seeing and handling hair 
 taken from many thousands of heads, and 
 being taught its use, the belief is pardonable, 
 if morbid, that false locks are almost as com- 
 mon as real, and that whenever they are es- 
 pecially beautiful they should awaken most 
 distrust." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 The mere aspect of the hair by the unaided 
 eye gives no information whatever in respect 
 to its structure; it seems to consist of homo- 
 geneous matter variously coloured in different 
 hairs^ having a thread-like shape, the one end 
 being bulbiform, like a little knob, the other 
 end, the tip of a hair, if not cut previously, 
 being the finest part of the whole hair, thus 
 presenting the smallest circumference. A pin, 
 therefore, would be the most appropriate pat- 
 tern of a hair^s shape, the pin^s head repre- 
 senting the bulb, the point of the pin repre- 
 senting the tip of the hair, and the part of 
 the pin between the point and the head 
 representing the hair^s shaft. That would be 
 nearly all the information we could gain by 
 ocular inspection, and all conditions concern- 
 ing minute structure, growth, disease, &c., 
 would not become known to us — nay, we 
 c 
 
18 THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 should even remain ignorant on all matters 
 respecting the colour of the hair^ if we were 
 not able to penetrate into the different layers 
 and tissues^ in order not only to study their 
 structure, but also to observe the action upon 
 them of different chemical agencies. 
 
 The microscope is that most valuable in- 
 strument which enables us to trace the works 
 of Nature to their first origin, and to study 
 Nature^s most remarkable and at the same 
 time invariable and unchangeable laws. It is 
 not my purpose to dwell here on the pleasure 
 and satisfaction which microscopic researches 
 give, nor is it my task to show how necessary 
 it is for every well-educated man to make him- 
 self acquainted at least with the rudimentary 
 phenomena of Nature which surround him 
 daily, hourly, nay, every second ; by which he 
 lives, breathes, moves, sees, hears, &c., pheno- 
 mena which make the knowledge of micro- 
 scopic work indispensable. But for the purpose 
 I have in view it will suffice just to give the 
 general rules for the use of the microscope, in 
 order to enable the reader to examine hair and 
 preserve it on slides (fig. 2), for it would be a 
 very erroneous conception to think that the 
 
 J 
 
THE MICROSCOPE. 19 
 
 mere possession of a microscope renders the 
 possessor fit for microscopic examination. Oh 
 no; microscopy is an art, requiring instruc- 
 tion_, dexterity, experience, and, like any other 
 art, must be taught and acquired by practical 
 work. 
 
 Those, however, who wish to get a thorough 
 knowledge of microscopy must be referred to 
 Dr. Lionel Beale^s excellent work, " How to 
 Work with the Microscope,^^ or to the works 
 of Carpenter, Quekett, Harley, and others. 
 But for those who are anxious to gain such 
 information as will enable them not only to 
 follow the researches on which I shall have to 
 treat, but also to acquire the necessary dexte- 
 rity in order to set to work themselves, the 
 following remarks may form an introduction 
 to their studies. 
 
 For examination of the hair and similar 
 structures no expensive instrument is required. 
 A microscope which enlarges about two or 
 three hundred times will suit all purposes. 
 
 The principal part of the microscope is the 
 tube A B (fig. 1), both extremities contain- 
 ing lenses, those at a forming the eye-piece, 
 and those at b the object glasses; c is the 
 c3 
 
20 
 
 THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 stage on wMcli the slides are put for examina- 
 tion^ and on which light is thrown by the 
 
 Fia. 1. 
 
 mirror d ; the coarse adjustment is effected by 
 the screws at c, and the finer adjustment by 
 that at F. 
 
 Large microscopes have generally three eye- 
 pieces, marked a, b, c, and a number of object- 
 glasses, from two inches to a fiftieth of an 
 inch. These numbers have reference to the 
 focal distance, which term means the distance 
 of the object-glasses b from the object to 
 
THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 21 
 
 be examined. Thus a two-inch objective 
 means a combination of lenses which have the 
 magnifying power of a single lens^ the focal 
 point of which is two inches from the object. 
 
 The magnifying power of a microscope may 
 be seen in the following table : — 
 
 
 Object-glasses. 
 
 Eye-pieces. 
 
 
 2 in. 
 
 liu.|iin. 
 
 iin. 
 
 >in. 
 
 xVin- 
 
 rVin. 
 
 ,Vin. 
 
 %o in- 
 
 A 
 
 20 
 
 60 
 
 100 
 
 220 
 
 420 
 
 600 
 
 800 
 
 1250 
 
 2500 
 
 B 
 
 30 
 
 80 
 
 130 
 
 350 
 
 670 870 
 
 1184 
 
 1850 
 
 3700 
 
 C 
 
 40 
 
 100 
 
 180 
 
 500 
 
 9OO ! 1400 
 
 1600 
 
 2500 5000 
 
 The combination of eye-piece a with the 
 2 in. objective constitutes therefore a magni- 
 fying power of 20. Eye-piece b with the 
 same objective magnifies 30 times ; eye-piece c 
 with the same objective 40 times, and so forth. 
 These measurements are linear — that means, 
 the object which is magnified 200 times is as 
 large as if 200 such objects were laid down 
 in one line. The microscope, however, does 
 not magnify in one direction only, but in all 
 directions alike ; the enlargement is therefore 
 superficial J which is the square of the linear, 
 consequently if the quarter-inch magnifies an 
 
22 
 
 THE MICROSCOPE. 
 
 object about 200 diameters, or 200 linears, 
 its superficial measurement will be obviously 
 the square of the 200 linears — namely, 40,000. 
 There are a few other instruments required 
 for examination of the hair, namely : — 
 
 1. One or two sharp razors for making sections. 
 
 2. A common scalpel. 
 
 3. A fine sharp pair of scissors. 
 
 4. Needles, mounted on handles, as commonly used 
 
 for microscopic work. 
 
 5. A pair of forceps. 
 
 The following chemicals are likewise neces- 
 sary : — 
 
 1. Absolute alcohol. 
 
 2. Glycerine. 
 
 3. Turpentine. 
 
 4. Ether. 
 
 5. Sulphuric acid. 
 
 6. Nitric acid, 
 
 7. Hydrochloric acid. 
 
 8. A solution of potash. 
 
 9. A solution of soda. 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 A few watch-glasses, two or three glass 
 tubes, pieces of cork, glass slides (a a, fig. 2), 
 
THE MICROSCOPE, 23 
 
 glass covers (b b_, fig. 2), and a few painting 
 brushes, make the apparatus complete. 
 
 In order to examine a hair or a piece of 
 hair, it is put on the slide and covered, while 
 a few drops of alcohol are allowed to flow be- 
 tween the cover and the slide, whereby the 
 air, filling the hair and preventing our seeing 
 the structure, will escape, and allow the proper 
 examination of the object. 
 
CHAPTER in. 
 
 THE SKIN^ AND HOW THE HAIR IS FIXED IN IT. 
 
 When a farmer wishes to gain a knowledge 
 of tlie structure and physiology of the plants 
 he takes so much pains to cultivate^ he is 
 obliged to study the composition of the soil, 
 upon which the growth and development of 
 the plants depend, and to learn its chemical 
 and physical properties. 
 
 That is exactly the course we have to pur- 
 sue in our researches. Being about to investi- 
 gate the nature and development of the human 
 hair, we are obliged to glance at the principal 
 features of the soil which nourishes the hair, 
 in which the hair has its root, and which, 
 when it becomes diseased, very often imparts 
 this condition to the hair, which then loses 
 its glossy appearance, splits, becomes brittle, 
 breaks off or falls out, together with its root, 
 and causes a bald state of its former soil. The 
 human skin, into which the roots of the hair 
 
THE SKIN. 25 
 
 are implanted is, with, the exception of a few 
 spots_, all over covered with hair. These excep- 
 tional spots, where no hair grows, are the eye- 
 lids, the rosy parts of the lips, the palm of the 
 hand, the sole of the foot, the dorsal side of 
 the last joints of the fingers and toes, and one 
 or two other smaller spots. 
 
 The skin forms a perfectly closed sac 
 around the body, and having to discharge 
 several duties, is of such great importance as 
 to bring an individuaFs life into jeopardy if 
 more than half becomes incapable of dis- 
 charging these duties. 
 
 The following woodcut (fig. 3) shows the 
 rough outlines of the microscopical appearances 
 of a vertical section of the skin. 
 
 The structure of the human skin, with its 
 tubes and glands and other organs, may well be 
 compared with the ground on which large cities 
 are built, as we see it sometimes in the streets 
 of London when dug up for repairing the road 
 or the water-pipes, and similar purposes. 
 
 When the upper layer of a street has been 
 removed, we see a vast number of pipes, strings, 
 canals, &c., running across or along each other, 
 and serving several purposes. Here is a gutta 
 
26 
 
 THE SKIN, AND 
 
 Fia. 3 * 
 
 on/ 
 
 oo I 
 10 o 
 
 ^ f ''' o r. o ' 
 
 * Fig. 3 represents the outlines of a vertical section through 
 the human skin, A A being the epidermis adapting itself to 
 the elevations (c c) and depressions (b b) of the sensitive 
 layer; C C, papillae of the corium, d d; e e, fat deposited in 
 the lower meshes of the corium j p e, globular balls of per- 
 spiratory apparatus j G g, tubes of the same apparatus ; H H, 
 openings of these tubes on the skin, called 'pores -, i i, oil 
 glands of the skin ; k k, their openings into the sheath of the 
 hair ; L L, papillae of the root of the hair ; M M, sheath of the 
 hair ; N N, bulb and shaft of the hair. 
 
no IV THE HAIR IS FIXED IN IT. 27 
 
 percha covered wire for the telegrapli, dis- 
 charging electric duties ; there is a pipe con- 
 veying gas or water to the houses, while the 
 large canal carries away the refuse from the 
 dwellings to a distant part of the Thames. 
 Let these tubes become unfit for their respec- 
 tive work, and it will scarcely be possible to 
 live in that vast city, and the health and lives 
 of the inhabitants would become endangered. 
 But in the proper, regular condition all these 
 arrangements will do their work without in- 
 terfering with each other, though they are im- 
 bedded in the same soil, now running parallel, 
 now crossing and recrossing their course. This 
 is exactly the case with the human skin con- 
 stituting the surface of the body. It can 
 distinctly be shown to be composed of three 
 principal layers — namely, the epidermis, the 
 sensitive layer, and the corium. The upper layer 
 of the London ground, which must be removed 
 before we can see the tubes and pipes, and the 
 relation they bear to each other, would be repre- 
 sented in the skin by the epidermis. This 
 is a semi-transparent membrane formed wholly 
 of cells, and containing neither vessels nor 
 nerves; it applies itself to all the elevations 
 
28 THE SKIN, AND 
 
 — — , 
 
 and depressions by whicli the sensitive layer 
 of the corium is marked. If we therefore 
 put a blister to the skiu^ whereby the epider- 
 mis, by means of a certain fluid, becomes 
 separated from the corium, the separated 
 part may easily and painlessly be cut and re- 
 moved by a pair of scissors, representing an 
 exact cast of the surface of the sensitive layer 
 of the corium ; the convexities and concavities, 
 of course, being in the same manner reversed 
 in the epidermis as if you take a wax cast from 
 a piece of money. 
 
 The sensitive layer — called the Malpighian 
 stratum — lies between the epidermis and the 
 corium ; it is but thin and uneven, composed 
 of numerous vessels, upon which the colour 
 of the skin depends. Low temperature causes 
 them to contract, whereby the skin assumes 
 a pale or dusky appearance, while they expand 
 in high temperature, and, the supply of blood 
 hereby becoming increased, give to the skin a 
 red hue. The unevenness of that layer, says 
 Erasmus Wilson, has reference to an important 
 law in animal organization — namely, that of 
 multiplying surface for the increase of friction; 
 and the means of effecting this object is by the 
 
HOW THE HAIR IS FIXED IN IT. 29 
 
 extension of its substance into little, elongated, 
 conical prominences, teclinically termed papillae. 
 These papillae in certain parts, as in tlie palms 
 of the hands, are raised in the form of small 
 ridges, which can be seen by the naked eye. 
 
 The corium is composed of a firm tissue ; 
 its lower meshes contain fat globules, which 
 for the economy of our body are of the 
 highest importance. 
 
 The three layers just mentioned contain 
 besides a vast number of nerves, which render 
 the skin the organ of touch, and vessels giving 
 to the skin its hue, certain tubular or glandular 
 apparatus, the former for perspiratory pur- 
 poses, the latter in order to keep the surface 
 of the skin bedewed with an oily fluid. 
 
 These tubes traverse the three layers of the 
 skin more or less deeply, and open on the 
 surface of the epidermis as very minute aper- 
 tures, which we know under the name of pores. 
 In healthy life, the perspiratory apparatus, 
 consisting of small tubes, and terminating 
 in little globular balls, removes the excess 
 of water and of certain salts dissolved in the 
 blood, and regulates the temperature of the 
 latter. This process, which is constantly 
 
30 THE SKIN, AND 
 
 going on, has been called insensible perspiration. 
 In disease, however, or when the body under- 
 goes great musculat exercise, that fluid forms 
 drops on the skin, and is known to us as sweat. 
 But the question might be raised whether 
 a number of small tubes, which can be seen 
 only by means of a microscope, are really of any 
 importance in the economy of our body ? In 
 order to arrive at something like an estimate 
 of the value of the perspiratory system in re- 
 lation to the rest of the organism, Erasmus 
 Wilson counted the perspiratory pores on the 
 palm of the hand, and found 3528 of them in 
 a square inch. " Now,^^ he continues, " each 
 of these pores being the aperture of a little 
 tube about a quarter of an inch long, it follows 
 that in a square inch of skin on the palm of 
 the hand there exists a length of tube equal 
 to 882 inches, or 73J feet. Surely such an 
 amount of drainage as seventy-three feet in 
 every square inch of skin, assuming this to be 
 the average of the whole body, is something 
 wonderful, and the thought naturally intrudes 
 itself — What if this drainage were obstructed ? 
 Could we need a stronger argument for en- 
 forcing the necessity of attention to the skin. 
 
HOIV THE HAIR IS FIXED IN IT. 31 
 
 " On the pulps of the fingers,, where the 
 ridges of the sensitive layer of the true skin 
 are somewhat finer than in the palm of the 
 handj the number of pores on a square inch a 
 little exceeded that of the palm, and on the 
 heelj where the ridges are coarser, the number 
 of pores on a square inch was 2268, and the 
 length of tube 567 inches, or forty-seven feet. 
 To obtain an estimate of the length of tube 
 of the perspiratory system of the whole 
 surface of the body, I think that 2800 might 
 be taken as a fair average of the number of 
 pores in the square inch, and 700, conse- 
 quently, of the number of inches in length. 
 Now the number of square inches of surface in 
 a man of ordinary height and bulk, is 2500 ; 
 the number of pores, therefore, seven millions, 
 and the number of inches of perspiratory tube 
 one million seven hundred and fifty thousand — 
 that is, one hundred and forty-fioe thousand 
 eight hundred and thirty-three feet, or forty- 
 eight thousand six hundred yards, or nearly 
 twenty-eight miles.'' 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE OF THE HAIR. 
 
 Every day's observation teaches us that mois- 
 tening of the skin with water causes the latter to 
 form in drops^ as if thrown on an oily surface. 
 The skin is^ in fact, nothing else but such a 
 fat surface, and it has already been mentioned 
 that it contains a separate apparatus, which 
 has to discharge the duty of keeping the sur- 
 face of the skin bedewed with an oily fluid. 
 The general structure of this apparatus resem- 
 bles that of the perspiratory system, consisting 
 of fine tubes and small glands, the latter im- 
 bedded in the corium, the former traversing 
 the sensitive layer, and terminating as minute 
 openings in the epidermis or scarf. 
 
 The fourth formation implanted in the skin, 
 is the hair. It may be regarded as a modifica- 
 tion of the epidermis, to which it is analogous 
 in mode of formation, but than which it is 
 somewhat more highly organized and complex. 
 
STRUCTURE OF THE HAIR. 33 
 
 The root of each hair is implanted into the 
 subcutaneous fat-layer of the skin, and as far 
 as running through the skin, is involved in a 
 sheath (fig. 3, m, m) called the hair sac, 
 which may be considered simply as an involu- 
 tion of the skin with the epidermis and the 
 layers of the corium. 
 
 Pulling out a hair from the skin, some layers 
 of the sac, firmly adhering to it, are likewise 
 torn out while other layers, closely attached to 
 the skin, remain behind. 
 
 The root is of a softer consistence than the 
 rest of the hair, and has sometimes a reddish, 
 sometimes a gray or black colour. Its shape, 
 as already stated, is bulbous, or rather club-like, 
 because of its projecting into the hair-shaft. 
 
 The following woodcut (fig. 4), represents 
 the root of the hair, together with the hair- 
 sacs (/), the root sheath {d, c), and the pajpilla 
 of the hair {h). 
 
 These parts are of the utmost importance, 
 inasmuch as from them the hair^s growth takes 
 place. "VVe must therefore make ourselves 
 thoroughly acquainted with their structure, 
 in order to be enabled to gain an insight into 
 the physiology, and more particularly into the 
 
34 
 
 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 diseases to whicli the hair is subject, and on 
 which we shall have to treat hereafter. 
 
 In each hair-sac there can be distinguished 
 an external fibrous part (/)_, the proper hair- 
 sac, and a non-vascular cellular investment 
 lining this — the epidermis of the hair-sac — and 
 
OF THE HAIR. 35 
 
 the root-sheath {d and c), so termed because 
 of its immediately surrounding the hair. 
 
 The proper hair- sac (/) consists of two 
 fibrous layers^ an external and an internal and 
 of a structureless membrane, which contains 
 in its lower part the papilla of the hair [h). 
 Of these three layers the external fibrous 
 membrane is the thickest ; it determines on 
 the form of the hair-sac, and is very closely 
 attached to the corium. 
 
 The internal fibrous membrane is much more 
 delicate than the external. It extends from 
 the bottom of the hair-sac to the sebaceous 
 glands. The third layer is a transparent 
 membrane, which, when the hair is torn out, 
 invariably remains behind in the hair- sac and 
 extends from its base, though, as it would 
 seem, without covering the papilla, as far as 
 the inner root-sheath, and perhaps higher up. 
 
 Just from the ground of the sac the pa- 
 pilla of the hair projects, less properly termed 
 the hair germ J corresponding with a papilla of 
 the cutis. It consists of two parts, the one 
 being a globular projection, or the proper 
 papilla of the hair, the other consisting of a 
 layer of cells covering the papilla, and gradu- 
 
36 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 ally passing over into the middle membrane of 
 the sac. 
 
 The hair-sheath {d and c) consists of two 
 distinct layers, the external and internal,, and 
 thus forms a kind of lining membrane to the 
 sac (/). 
 
 The external layer, or the external root- 
 sheath (c?), consists of very small round or 
 oval-shaped cells, which, in several layers, lie 
 upon another, and higher up pass over it into 
 Malpighi^s net-work, while at the bottom of 
 the hair-sac they pass continuously and with- 
 out any sharp line of demarcation, into the 
 round cells of the hair-bulb which covers the 
 papilla. 
 
 The inner transparent root-sheath (c) is half 
 as thin as the outer; it extends almost from 
 the hair-sac over more than two-thirds of it, 
 and then suddenly ceases. It is externally 
 closely connected with the outer root-sheath 
 {d), internally with the cuticle of the hair {a). 
 
 In the root, the vital point of a hair, we 
 have therefore to distinguish — 
 
 1. The bulb of the hair substance, 
 
 2. Its immediate envelopment, the cuticle of 
 the hair (a). 
 
OF THE HAIR, 37 
 
 3. The inner root-sheath [c). 
 
 4. The external root-sheath [d). 
 
 5 . The hair-sac J consisting of three layers (/) • 
 
 6. The papilla of the hair {h) . 
 
 These are the principal parts of the root of 
 the hair^ but there are several other structures, 
 the investigation of which does not belong 
 to our province, and will be undertaken by 
 such readers only as intend to make them- 
 selves more intimately acquainted with the 
 microscope than is the object of this book. 
 
 It remains only in conclusion to say a few 
 words concerning the method of preparing the 
 hair for examination under the microscope, 
 and seeing the parts just described. 
 
 For that purpose it is necessary to use a 
 piece of Iresh calf's skin, hardened in a solution 
 of chromic acid (about three grains of the acid 
 to an ounce of water). In this solution the 
 skin remains for about two or three days, after 
 which it is hard enough for making sections of 
 it by means ^f a sharp razor. 
 
 To make sections as fine as requisite for 
 microscopical examination, some practice is re- 
 quired, which, however, can easily be acquired. 
 Whoever does not like to wait until he is capa- 
 
38 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 ble of making proper sections, may make use 
 of the double-knife, an instrument much used 
 in microscopy. It is in fact nothing but a knife 
 with two blades, which, by means of a screw, 
 may easily be brought at a very small distance 
 from each other. If a cut is made by that 
 knife into animal tissue, the piece remaining 
 between the two blades is just a fit section for 
 microscopic examination. If the skin of a calf 
 is used for a section, the shape of the hair-bulb 
 will be somewhat dififerent from that in man^ 
 but the relation of the tissues is the same. 
 
 The shape of the hair-bulb differs not only 
 in various animals, but even in the same animal, 
 and in men when taken from different parts of 
 the body. To examine the hair-sheath, it suf- 
 fices to tear out a strong, thick hair from the 
 beard, and the hair- sheath adhering to the bulb 
 will likewise come off. If put in a very weak 
 solution of caustic soda, or potash — five grains 
 to the ounce of distilled water — and examined 
 under the microscope, the external and internal 
 sheath become very distinct. 
 
 We now come to the parts constituting the 
 hair- shaft. If a hair be taken from the head 
 and put under the microscope, nothing would 
 
OF THE HAIR. 39 
 
 be seen but a dark stroke without any structure. 
 But if a few drops of alcobol be allowed to 
 pass between the object-glass and the cover, 
 or if we apply certain acids or alkalies, then a 
 clear image is presented to our view, which 
 shows the hair^s minute composition, with all 
 its particulars. 
 
 The reason why we have seen nothing of 
 the structure of the hair before using the 
 alcohol is because the hair contains, as will be 
 seen, a great amount of air, which interferes 
 with the transparency, and when driven out and 
 replaced by the alcohol, admits of a clear view. 
 
 The hair thus prepared shows at the first 
 glance three different cellular structures, as 
 seen in fig. 5. 
 
 The exterior layer consists of cells covering 
 the hair in a similar manner as do tiles the 
 roof of a house, but not so regular. This layer 
 is termed the cuticle of the hair (fig. 5, b, and 
 fig. 4, a). 
 
 Next is seen the formation, presenting a lon- 
 gitudinal, striated appearance (a, and fig. 4, b). 
 This being composed of differently- shaped cells, 
 and being the real substance of the hair, is called 
 the cortical or fibrous substance of the hair. 
 
40 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
OF THE HAIR. 41 
 
 The third formation appears as a regular 
 streak or cord^ which extends in the central 
 axis of the hair from the bulb to nearly the 
 point of the hair (d^ and fig. 4, c). This is 
 called the medullary substance of the hair. 
 
 Besides, we see all over the hair some irregu- 
 larly-distributed dark spots, which^ as we shall 
 learn, contain air, and have an important 
 bearing on the question of the colour of the 
 hair [e e). 
 
 1. The cuticle being, as already mentioned, 
 the outer layer of the hair, is a very thin, 
 transparent pellicle of flattened cells or scales 
 of an oval form, completely investing the hair, 
 and very closely united with the cortical sub- 
 stance. It becomes visible in all its details 
 when treated by a solution of caustic soda, 
 caustic potash, or by sulphuric acid. 
 
 The cells are so disposed that each inferior 
 circle overhes the superior (c c), whereby the 
 contours of the hair exhibit a serrated appear- 
 ance. The scales of a fish or of a serpent 
 would give a good idea of the arrangement, 
 with the difference only that in these animals 
 the plates are arranged with perfect regularity, 
 which is not the case with the scales of the hair. 
 
42 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 The interspaces of these irregular circular 
 lines are a 2000th or 6000th part of a line from 
 one another. Kolliker, a renowned German 
 microscopist, is of opinion that the cuticle of 
 the hair passes into the outer cells of the bulb. 
 To this opinion Busk and Huxley object, and 
 recommend the application of caustic ammonia 
 as particularly fitted to demonstrate the struc- 
 ture of this part. In the first place, these 
 excellent microscopists say, it raises up the 
 outer layer of the cuticle from the inner, and 
 shows that the former, at any rate, is not 
 continuous with any cells; and secondly, it 
 dissolves and forces out the substance of the 
 lower soft portion of the bulb, so that the 
 lower part of the cuticle may be obtained as a 
 transparent, colourless, and independent sheath 
 even from the very darkest hair. Lastly, under 
 favourable circumstances, this reagent raises 
 up a definite basement-membrane from the 
 outer surface of the lowest part of the bulb, in 
 immediate contact with the rounded ^^ nuclei^^ 
 of this part, and this basement-membrane may 
 be traced upward into direct continuity with 
 the homogeneous portion of the cuticle above 
 described. 
 
OF THE HAIR. 43 
 
 The scaly^ tile-like construction of the 
 cuticle explains the well-known phenomenon 
 of the hair feeling rough when drawn between 
 the fingers in one direction, and smooth on 
 the opposite, or the spiral movement of a hair 
 when drawn longitudinally between one finger, 
 say the index, and the nail of the thumb. 
 There is likewise due to this structure of the 
 cuticle the firmness with which, on the one 
 hand, hair, when cut, adheres to the neck 
 and body, and on the other, with which dust 
 and dirt, or particles of scurf, adhere to the 
 hair. 
 
 A more important consequence, says Eras- 
 mus "Wilson, of the projection of the edges of 
 the scales which form its exterior surface, is the 
 fact that the process oi felting depends upon 
 this peculiarity. Without it, hair would be 
 unfitted, from the smoothness of its surface and 
 shortness of its staple, for combining with the 
 strength requisite for the production of felt. 
 But in this fitness for felting there is great 
 variety in hair, and an equal difference in the 
 degree of prominence of its raised edges. In 
 human hair they are very slightly marked ; but 
 nevertheless felting is not uncommon when the 
 
44 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 hair is neglected, and there are some diseases 
 of the hair which turn wholly on this property 
 of felting. When particles of dust collect on 
 the edges of the scales and form projections, or 
 the edges themselves become loosened and raised, 
 they give the idea of branches from the shaft of 
 the hair, an appearance which misled Leeu- 
 wenhoek into the belief that hairs, like feathers, 
 were naturally furnished with branches. 
 
 2. The cortical or fibrous substance. — If a 
 hair has been treated with caustic soda, or 
 sulphuric acid, a pressure on the cover will 
 suffice to separate the different layers of the 
 cortical substance upon which the shape of the 
 hair principally depends. In white hair, 
 which, on account of its transparency, is par- 
 ticularly apt for microscopical examination, the 
 cortical substance will be seen longitudinally 
 striated, more so near the bulb, less towards 
 the point. If a hair, after having been acted 
 upon by sulphuric acid, is teased out by means 
 of needles, it is not at all difficult to separate 
 lace-like, lance-shaped cells, showing a lighter 
 or darker yellow or brownish hue. These cells 
 are not yet the ultimate elements of the 
 cortical substance, but when the action of the 
 
OF THE HAIR. 45 
 
 acid continues,, may be subdivided into spindle- 
 shaped spicula, these being the proper cells of 
 the substance. In darker hair these cells con- 
 tain pigment-molecules, which are sometimes 
 accumulated to more or less extensive groups. 
 From these groups other dark spots, likewise 
 abundantly seen in these cells, must be distin- 
 guished as small holes filled with air. That 
 they have nothing to do with the pigment- 
 molecules, becomes evident by the fact of their 
 principally being present in white hair, which 
 is void of all pigment, and of the holes be- 
 coming filled with turpentine after the escape 
 of the air, if the hair has been put for a cer- 
 tain time into that fluid. 
 
 The escape of air takes place in a more 
 rapid manner, and offers a very amusing 
 spectacle, if, instead of putting the hair into 
 turpentine, a drop of muriatic acid is allowed 
 to flow between the cover and the object-glass. 
 As soon as that is done, large air-bubbles may 
 be seen to escape from the medullary canal 
 and the air spaces of the cortical substance, 
 and to surround the hair. According to 
 the description given of the structure of the 
 cortical substance, it will be easily explicable 
 
46 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 why the flow of air bubbles is much more 
 active near the bulb than at more distant parts 
 of the hair. The dark spots then disappear, 
 the dark cells, forming the medullary canal, 
 become transparent, but assume their former 
 condition when the action of the acid ceases, 
 and the hair is washed in water and dried in 
 the air. 
 
 No one who undertakes to study the struc- 
 ture of the hair ought to neglect this experi- 
 ment, which gives him an idea of the great 
 amount of air contained in and between the 
 tissues of the hair. This arrangement being — 
 as already stated — of great importance in re- 
 spect to the question of the colour of the hair, 
 it is necessary to be well acquainted with it 
 before entering on that question. 
 
 Having considered the structure of the 
 cuticle of the hair, and of the cortical sub- 
 stance as revealed by the microscope, we have 
 now to examine the third kind of tissue, 
 namely — 
 
 3. The medullary substance of the hair (fig. 
 5, d d). — It forms, as already stated, a streak 
 or cord through nearly the whole axis of 
 the hair, appearing dark when viewed by the 
 
OF THE HAIR. 47 
 
 microscope ; being absent in the hair of young 
 children, and in very fine thin hair generally_, 
 but always being present in strong hair, par- 
 ticularly when grey or white. 
 
 Writers differ very much in respect to 
 the nature and structure of the medullary 
 cord. Formerly it was considered to be com- 
 posed of tubes, which, taking rise in the bulb 
 of the hair, and running through its axis, are 
 filled with an oily fluid to keep the hair soft 
 and smooth. 
 
 At present we know well that it is air 
 which has formerly been considered colouring 
 matter by some, and a fluid by others. 
 
 As I have remarked on a former occasion, 
 we may drive out the air contained in the 
 central tube — as the medullary cord has like- 
 wise been called — and see it re-enter again 
 under the microscope. This can be done in 
 different ways. Turpentine penetrates all 
 parts of the hair which are filled by air, but 
 its action is slow and requires some time. If 
 we put therefore a hair into turpentine, and 
 allow it to remain therein about twenty-four 
 hours, and view it under the microscope, we 
 find the central tube, which was dark until 
 
48 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 acted upon by turpentine, light — perfectly- 
 transparent. But if we expose tlie hair again 
 to a high temperature, the turpentine evapo- 
 rates, and becomes replenished by air, conse- 
 quently the central tube assumes its dark 
 appearance again. 
 
 The same phenomenon may at once be ob- 
 served when we boil a hair in nitric acid, or 
 in a mixture of equal parts of nitric acid 
 and hydrochloric acid. In this instance, 
 the air-vesicles, which are of such an ex- 
 tremely small size as to make the impression 
 of a uniform dark streak, become confluent, 
 forming large air-bubbles, and filling more or 
 less regularly the central tube. These air- 
 bubbles, I think, have been mistaken by some 
 authors for medullary cells, which I have failed 
 to discover, though I have searched for them 
 with care. What I have seen is this. When 
 the central tube has been deprived of the air 
 contained therein, we see a transparent streak 
 running through the centre of the hair, con- 
 sisting apparently of extremely minute meshes. 
 These meshes must either be in communica- 
 tion with each other, or have such a construc- 
 tion of their walls as to allow the air to pass 
 
OF THE HAIR. 49 
 
 from one mesh or cell to the other. For 
 when making the experiment just alluded to — 
 viz., of driving out the air by turpentine and 
 allowing it to enter again — one sees the air 
 moving along the central tube with great 
 rapidity, finding resistance nowhere. 
 
 The part of the medulla immediately above 
 the bulb is generally of a pale appearance, con- 
 taining no air. Such pale spots may likewise 
 be found in the course of the streak, thus 
 interrupting its continuity. 
 
 Another phenomenon easily observable is 
 the division of the medullary cord into two 
 parts, forming two streaks, which either have 
 a separate course all along from the root 
 through the shaft, or which run a certain 
 distance as separate cords, and then unite 
 again in one. 
 
 The medullary substance generally occupies 
 a fourth or fifth part of the hair^s breadth ; its 
 breadth is the greatest in short thick hair, 
 least in the down and hair of the head. In a 
 transverse section it presents a round or flat- 
 tened figure, and the cells which comprise it are 
 disposed in one or more longitudinal series. 
 
 In animals the central tube very often con- 
 
 E 
 
50 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 sists of large air-cells, ranging one after the 
 other, either in close juxtaposition, or with 
 dark spaces between the one cell and the 
 other ; one such cell, in some instances, being 
 so large as to occupy the whole breadth of the 
 medulla. Although the central part of the 
 hair of man, says Wilson, is a loose pith, in 
 which the original spherical form of the cells 
 is more or less completely lost, yet in many 
 animals this form is retained with the most 
 exact precision, and such hairs appear to con- 
 tain on their axis a very beautiful string of 
 beads, rendered strikingly obvious, in dried 
 hairs, by the emptiness of the cells. Such is 
 the appearance of the very fine hairs of the 
 hare or mouse. In thick hairs from the same 
 animals, there are two or three or more rows 
 of cells, and the largest hairs, from the 
 number of these rows, bear a resemblance in 
 structure to an ear of maize. This is the 
 chief modification which the pith of the hair 
 undergoes in the animal kingdom, being more 
 or less completely cellulated, and holding a 
 greater or lesser proportion to the entire bulk 
 of the hair j sometimes, indeed, from one of 
 the deer-tribe, the whole texture of the hair 
 
OF THE HAIR. 51 
 
 is cellular^ the other two portions being con- 
 densed into a thin envelope. In the feather 
 of a bird^ which is a modification of the 
 hair, the white pith, with its dense external 
 coveriQg, is very evident in the shaft, while 
 the quill is an illustration of the outer parts 
 alone, the transparent puckered membrane, 
 which is drawn out of the quill when first cut, 
 being a single row of dried-up cells. In the 
 growing feather, the contents of the quill 
 would be found distinctly cellulated. 
 
 The arrangement of a central tube in the 
 axis of the hair adds a great deal to the elas- 
 ticity of the hair, while it diminishes its 
 weight; and yet the hair is of considerable 
 strength, which depends upon the properties 
 of the cortical or fibrous substance. A single 
 hair from a boy eight years of age, says Ko- 
 binson, in his '^ Essays on Natural Economy,^' 
 supported a weight of 7812 grains; and from 
 a man aged twenty -two, 14,285 grains; and 
 a hair from a man of fifty-seven, 22,222 grains. 
 Muschenbroeck found that a human hair, 
 fifty-seven times thicker than a silkworm's 
 thread, would support a weight of 2069 grains ; 
 and a horse's hair, seven times thicker, 7970 
 
 E % 
 
52 MICROSCOPICAL STRUCTURE 
 
 grains. A part of this extraordinary strength 
 is undoubtedly due to the high degree of 
 elasticity which it possesses. 
 
 Withof considers two ounces to be the 
 greatest weight the human hair can bear. A 
 hair taken from the head^ and measuring five 
 inches, broke when the weight was nearly 
 three ounces. 
 
 A hair 8 in. long broke by the weight of 2^ ounces. 
 „ 11 in. „ „ 2f „ 
 
 » 12 in. „ „ 2i „ 
 
 « 14 in. „ „ 21- „ 
 
 It is therefore evident that a hair bears 
 easily two ounces weight. According to 
 Haller, from the eighth to the twenty-second 
 year of age, the strength of the hair increases 
 from 10,309 to 12,967 parts, and up to the 
 fifty-seventh year to 25,000 parts. E. H. 
 Weber, the celebrated physiologist, found the 
 human hair as elastic as india-rubber, but 
 after elongation it remains elongated to a cer- 
 tain extent. He found the hair of a lady 
 thirty-five years of age, capable of expanding 
 about one-third of its natural length. Such 
 being the strength of the human hair, we 
 find in history very often that women sacri- 
 
OF THE HAIR. 53 
 
 ficed their finest ornament, the hair, in order 
 to make ropes and bows pro patria. It was 
 for such a sacrifice, made by the women of 
 Rome when that city was besieged by the 
 Gauls, that the Roman senate ordered the 
 erection of the temple Veneris calvcB in honour 
 of the patriotic behaviour of the women of 
 Rome. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAIR. 
 
 In the human embryo, the first rudiments of 
 the hairs become visible at the end of the 
 third or the beginning of the fourth month. 
 They are constantly first to be seen upon the 
 forehead and eyebrows, and consist of papilli- 
 form masses of cells, which may be recognised 
 even by the naked eye, as minute whitish 
 spots. The roundish, partly elongated cells 
 of which they consist, measure about a 
 four-thousandth part of a line, and resemble 
 closely the cells of the cutis, with which 
 they are, indeed, in constant connexion. 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 d 
 Fig. 6 represents such rudiments of hairs 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAIR. 55 
 
 from the brow of a liuman embryo sixteen 
 weeks old^ drawn after Kolliker, by an en- 
 largement of 350 diameters; a representing 
 the horny layers of the epidermis^ h its mucous 
 layer, c the structureless membrane surround- 
 ing the rudiment of the hair, and by its 
 continuation between the mucous layer of the 
 corium, forming the constant connexion just 
 mentioned ; d, roundish, partly-elongated cells, 
 which especially compose the rudiments of the 
 hair. 
 
 At about the fifteenth week the structure- 
 less membrane may be seen formed around 
 these cell-masses, which membrane, according 
 to Kolliker, afterwards remains the inner 
 structureless membrane of the hair-sac. 
 Somewhat later, new cells develop upon the 
 outer surface of the membrane, which in the 
 course of development assume the shape of 
 those microscopical elements which we already 
 know as the two outer layers of the hair-sac. 
 
 Within the structureless membrane the cells 
 become elongated, the peripheral ones more 
 in a vertical, the central in a horizontal 
 direction, as seen in the figure above [d d). 
 In the central cells the elongation increases 
 
56 DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAIR. 
 
 constantly, and at the end of the eighteenth 
 month they form a light cone, which may 
 easily be distinguished from the layer of 
 peripheral cells. The basis of the cone rests 
 on the floor of the structureless little sac, 
 while its point projects towards the upper 
 surface. 
 
 This light cone, after the hair- rudiments 
 have attained a length of the twenty-five 
 hundredth part of a line, becomes divided into 
 two structures — a central portion somewhat 
 darker, and an external one, perfectly transpa- 
 rent and glassy, the former turning horny, 
 thus becoming transformed into the real hair, 
 while the latter forms the inner layer of the 
 sheath of the root. Between these layers 
 and the structureless envelopment of the 
 original cell-masses are the peripheral cells, 
 mentioned above as the outer layer of the 
 sheath of the root. At the same time, at the 
 basis of the cone the papilla of the hair 
 becomes visible as a small heap of light cells. 
 
 Thus the hairs of the embryo lie enveloped 
 in the structureless little sac, the tips covered 
 by the epidermis, through which (fig. 7) they 
 eventually make their passage. 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAIR. 57 
 
 Fig. 7 illustrates the facts just treated of; 
 it represents a rudimental hair from the eye- 
 
 7i 
 brows with a just developed, but not yet 
 erupted, hair 0*28 of a line in length; the 
 inner root-sheath projecting beyond the hair 
 somewhat at the upper part, and laterally at 
 the neck of the sac. The first rudiments of 
 the sebaceous glands appear in the form of 
 two papillary outgrowths from the outer root- 
 sheath {k k). a is the horny layer of the 
 epidermis ; h, mucous layer ; Cy outer root- 
 sheath of the subjacent sac; i, structureless 
 membrane upon its outer side; h, papilla of 
 
58 DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAIR. 
 
 the hair ; /, hair- shaft ; g, hair-point ; k k, 
 rudiments of the sebaceous glands.* 
 
 These downy hairs are technically termed 
 Lanugo^ the eruption of which is completed 
 between the twenty-third and twenty-fifth 
 week. After the eruption they grow slowly 
 to a length of one-fourth to one-third of a 
 line, and to a greater length upon the head 
 than elsewhere. 
 
 After birth a total shedding of the hair 
 takes place, in consequence of the develop- 
 ment of new hairs within the hair sacs of the 
 lanugo, which gradually force out the old 
 ones. This shedding, according to KoUiker, 
 whose investigations have thrown light on all 
 these points, commences by an out-growth of 
 the soft round cells of the bulb and of the 
 neighbouring outer root -sheath, from the 
 bottom of the sacs of the lanugo, into long 
 processes composed of cells, by which the hair 
 is raised from its papilla, whilst at the same 
 time it becomes converted into horn, even in 
 its lowermost portion. The young hair thrusts 
 upwards the bulb of the old hair, until at last 
 
 * From Kolliker. 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAIR. 59 
 
 it passes completely out, and makes its appear- 
 ance by the same opening as tlie old one^ 
 which is more and more pushed up. If we 
 therefore examine the skin of children of one 
 or two years of age, we find that every hair- 
 sac contains two hairs, of which the embryonal 
 one lies uppermost, containing no root-sheath, 
 whilst the newly-formed hair is found to lie 
 beneath the former. 
 
 When the development of the hair has 
 gone thus far, the old hair, which for a long 
 time has ceased to grow, and to be connected 
 with the bottom of the sac, being thus ex- 
 truded, falls out, while the young hair be- 
 comes larger and stronger, filling the gap 
 left by the old one. Herewith the whole 
 process is completed. 
 
 The hair thus developed is not — and this is 
 very important to know — a dead substance. 
 It is no doubt nourished and maintained by 
 certain fluids, furnished from the vessels of 
 the papilla, which, when wanting, cause the 
 hair to lose its glossy appearance, becoming 
 cleft and brittle. Here we find an answer to 
 the question, raised over and over again — 
 namely, whether a hair may become diseased. 
 
60 DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAIR, 
 
 From the facts hitherto treated of, we shall at 
 once be able to answer a second question — 
 namely, whether hair, when lost by some dis- 
 ease or otherwise, can grow again ? The whole 
 growth of the hair having, as we have just seen> 
 its origin on the papilla of the hair within the 
 sac, the question will be whether the loss of 
 hair has been a consequence of the destruction 
 of the sac and papilla, or of other causes, where- 
 by the hair-sacs, together with their papillae, 
 have been preserved. If the former be the case, 
 no power on earth will he able to restore the 
 hair, and to make it grow on a barren soil, 
 while in the other instance it will certainly 
 grow again. Scars, for instance, formed after 
 destruction of the whole corium — as those left 
 after vaccination — wherein the hair-sacs are 
 implanted, will remain bald for a whole life- 
 time, while after slight burns, or other insig- 
 nificant injuries, whereby the epidermis only 
 has been destroyed, the latter will be restored, 
 and the hair, if lost, will grow again. Another 
 instance is that in which the hair-sacs are still 
 in existence, but insufficiently active ; here we 
 can sometimes excite their activity by appli- 
 cation of local remedies, of which we shall 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAIR. 61 
 
 have to speak when treating of the diseases to 
 "which the hair is subject. 
 
 Concerning the number of hairs, Withof 
 has undertaken to count them. The value of 
 such an account is, of course, a relative one, 
 the numbers being different on different heads. 
 According to Withof, a square inch of a male, 
 moderately covered with hair, contains : — On 
 the head 293 hairs ; on the chin 39 ; on the 
 pubic region 34 ; on the fore-arm 23 ; on the 
 back of the hand 19; and on the front of 
 the thigh 13 hairs. 
 
 On the rapidity of growth of the hair, Ber- 
 thold has communicated some curious facts. 
 The hair of the head of ladies from sixteen to 
 twenty-four years of age grows at the rate 
 of seven lines a month. The growth of the 
 hair of the beard is quicker the often er it is 
 cut; shaved every twelve hours, it would 
 attain a length of from 5 J to 12 inches per 
 annum ; shaved every twenty-four hours, from 
 5 to 1\ inches; every thirty-six hours, from 
 4 to ^\ inches. It grows faster by one-six- 
 teenth during the day than during the night, 
 and in eighteen days in the summer 0*026 
 more than in eighteen days in the winter. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ABNORMAL GROWTH OF THE HAIR. 
 
 The growth of hair in man is^ as already- 
 mentioned, by no means confined to the head 
 and a few other regions of the body, but ex- 
 tends over the whole surface of the skin. 
 
 In almost aU animals we see the hair 
 forming a fur, but in man it acquires on a 
 few spots only a considerable length, and on 
 the others remains very fine and minute, so as 
 to be discovered only by careful searching. 
 
 This is the normal state. But abnormally 
 the hair even in man may acquire a con- 
 siderable length on such parts as generally 
 remain hairless, and such an excessive growth 
 may render the appearance of the skin similar 
 to that of a fur. 
 
 Excessive growth of the hair in men may 
 therefore occur in the following instances : — 
 
 1. Upon spots where the hair normally ex- 
 
GROWTH OF THE HAIR. 63 
 
 hibits a considerable length, tbe latter may 
 increase in a more or less bigh degree. 
 
 2. Where the hair, in a normal state, re- 
 mains so fine and minute as scarcely to be 
 seen, it may grow to a considerable length 
 and turn the skin totally or partly into a kind 
 of fur. 
 
 3. Growth of hair may take place on certain 
 regions of persons where normally none are to 
 be found, as, for instance, beards of ladies and 
 children. 
 
 Of all these different kinds, numbers of 
 cases are on record of recent and ancient 
 time^. 
 
 The superfluous growth of the human hair 
 may extend, as already stated, over the whole 
 surface of the body, and is then technically 
 termed " Universal Hypertrichosis,'' or it may 
 be seen only to extend over certain parts, in 
 which case it is called " Local Hypertrichosis ;" 
 the term Hypertrichosis being composed of 
 two Greek words — namely, " hyper,^^ signi- 
 fying ''more than necessary'' and "trichos,^^ 
 being the Greek word for "hair.^^ Tampo- 
 nette showed to Borrichius, who was a re- 
 nowned physician, a new-born child, entirely 
 
64 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 covered with hair; and Thomas Ficinus,, in 
 his book on the influence of certain impres- 
 sions of the mother on the foetus^ relates the 
 case of a girl at her birth entirely covered with 
 hair and a kind of bristles, from the mother's 
 often beholding the picture of St. John the 
 Baptist, hanging over her bedside, drawn in 
 his hairy vesture. The cousin of Pope 
 Nicholas III. is said to have given birth to a 
 similar child, from her often beholding a bear 
 in her crest. Zacutus Lusitanus has published 
 the history of a girl three years old, who was 
 regularly made, but possessed of a beard and 
 covered with hair all over her body. Eble 
 relates a case of a child born with a downy 
 beard, from the fact of her mother having 
 been frightened by her husband when he had 
 just finished soaping his beard before shaving. 
 Scalinger saw a Spanish boy totally covered 
 with white hairs, who, therefore, was called by 
 the French Barbet. 
 
 Bichat and Villerme, in 1808, at Poitiers, 
 saw a child of six or eight years of age, 
 exhibiting large dark spots all over his body, 
 and covering about the third part of it, on 
 which spots bristle-like hair grew. The 14th 
 
OF THE HAIR. 65 
 
 volume of Hufeland^s Journal contains the 
 case of a girl of fourteen years, whose back 
 was entirely covered with long, fair, curly 
 hair, perfectly resembling that of a calf. A 
 most remarkable case has been published by 
 Degner, concerning a girl who from the third 
 year of her life began to be covered with hair 
 at her back, abdomen, upper and lower ex- 
 tremities — the skin thus bearing a resemblance 
 to that of a horse. 
 
 About 1830 a boy, three years old, named 
 Stevenson, was living at Manor Gardens, Chel- 
 sea, one-half of whose body, from his birth, 
 was covered with brownish hairs, resembling in 
 thickness and colour those of his head. The 
 skin on which these hairs grew was likewise 
 of a brown hue, beginning at the hinder and 
 lower part of the neck, extending over the 
 back and the lower part of the abdomen, and 
 totally covering the front and back parts of 
 the thighs down to the knees. 
 
 There are many instances on record to show 
 that the abnormal growth of the hair may as 
 well be acquired by a hereditary taint as by 
 disease j thus the hair of the once renowned 
 dancer, Negreni, after her escape from an acute 
 
66 
 
 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 disease^ grew to a lengtli of over three yards, 
 and many of us remember the Spanish dancer, 
 Julia Pastrana, who was not only possessed of 
 a fine beard, but whose whole body was hairy. 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 We give her photograph (fig. 8), and it 
 may be mentioned that she had a child whose 
 hair began to grow in a similar manner to that 
 on the skin of his mother. 
 
 The phenomenon of excessive growth of 
 the hair of the whole body having passed 
 through three generations has been observed 
 
OF THE HAIR. G7 
 
 in a family at Ava at different times and by 
 different reliable authorities. 
 
 It was John Crawford, who, in his ^^ Journal 
 of an Embassy from the Governor-General of 
 India to the Court of Ava/' forty years ago, 
 first gave a description of Shwe-Maon and his 
 daughter Maphoon. The family was seen again 
 in 1855 by Captain Henry Youle, who gave a 
 description of them in his " Narrative of the 
 Mission sent by the Governor- General of India 
 to the Court of Ava/' And lastly, Maphoon 
 and her children were seen only a year ago 
 by Captain Houghton, who had photographs 
 taken from them, for copies of which I am 
 much indebted to the Rev. Mr. Houghton, of 
 Wellington, Salop, and to my friend, the Rev. 
 J. G. Wood, of Belvedere. 
 
 The case is so very rare and curious that 
 I need no apology for the reproduction of the 
 descriptions given by Crawford and Youle, nor 
 for giving the pictures and photographs of 
 all the members of that remarkable family. 
 
 Speaking of Shwe-Maon, Crawford says — 
 
 " We have heard much of a person said to 
 
 be covered all over with hair, and who, it was 
 
 insisted upon, more resembled an ape than a 
 
 f2 
 
68 
 
 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 human being — a description, however,, I am 
 glad to say, wMcli was by no means realized by 
 his appearance. 
 
 Fig. 9 * 
 
 " Having expressed a curiosity, to see this 
 individual, the king politely sent him over to 
 our dwelling, some days ago, and Dr. Wallich 
 
 * Fig. 9 is Shwe-M"aon's portrait, photographically copied 
 from Crawford's "Journal." Fig. 10 represents the profile 
 somewhat larger. 
 
OF THE HAIR. 69 
 
 and I took down on the spot the following 
 account of himself^ and this history. His 
 name was Shwe-Maon, and he stated him- 
 self to be thirty years of age. He was a 
 native of the district of Maeyong-gye^ a 
 country of Lao, situated on the Saluen_, or 
 Martaban river_, three months^ journey from 
 Ava. Saubwa, as the chief of the country, 
 presented him to the king as a curiosity when 
 a child of five years of age, and he had re- 
 mained in Ava ever since. His height was 
 five feet three inches and a half, which is 
 about the ordinary stature of the Burmese. His 
 orm was slender, if compared with the usually 
 robust make of the Hindoo-Chinese race, and 
 his constitution was rather delicate. In his com- 
 plexion there was nothing remarkable, although 
 upon the whole he was rather fairer than the 
 ordinary run of Burmese. The colour of his eyes 
 was a dark brown, not so intense as that of the 
 ordinary Burmese. The same thing may be said 
 of the hair of the head, which was also a little 
 finer in texture, and less copious. 
 
 " The whole forehead, the cheeks, the eyelids, 
 the nose, including a portion of the inside, the 
 chin — ^in short, the whole face, with the ex- 
 
70 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 ception of the red portion of the lips — were 
 covered with a fine hair. On the forehead 
 and cheeks this was eight inches long^ and on 
 the nose and chin about four inches. In 
 colour it was of a silvery grey; its texture 
 was silky^ lank and straight. The posterior 
 and inferior surface of the ears, with the 
 inside of the external ear. were completely 
 covered with hair of the same description as 
 that on the face, and about eight inches long : 
 it was this chiefly which contributed to give 
 his whole appearance at first sight an un- 
 natural and almost inhuman aspect. He may 
 be strictly said to have had neither eyelashes, 
 eyebrows, nor beard, or at least they were 
 supplanted by the same silky hair which en- 
 veloped the whole face. He stated that, 
 when a child, the whole of this singular 
 covering was much fairer than at present. 
 The whole body, with the exception of the 
 hands and feet, was covered with hair of the 
 same texture and colour as that now de- 
 scribed, but generally less abundant; it was 
 most plentiful over the spine and shoulders, 
 where it was five inches long ; over the breast 
 it was about four inches ; it was most scanty 
 
OF THE HAIR, 71 
 
 on the bare arms, the legs, thighs, and ab- 
 domen. We thought it not improbable that 
 this singular integument might be periodically 
 or occasionally shed, and inquired, but there 
 was no ground for this surmise — it was 
 quite permanent. 
 
 Fia. 10. 
 
 ^^ Although but thirty years of age, Shwe- 
 Maon had, in some respects, the appearance 
 of a man of fifty-five or sixty : this was owing 
 to a singularity connected with the formation 
 of the teeth, and the consequent falling in of the 
 cheeks. On inspecting the mouth, it was dis- 
 covered that he had in the lower jaw but five 
 teeth — namely, the four incisors and the left 
 canine; and in the upper but four, the two 
 
72 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 outer ones of which partook of the canine 
 form. The molars or grinders were of course 
 totally wanting. The gums, where they should 
 have been, were a hard fleshy ridge, and, judg- 
 ing from appearances, there was no alveolar 
 process. The few teeth he had were sound 
 but rather small, and he had never lost any 
 from disease. He stated that he did not shed 
 his infantile teeth till he was twenty years 
 of age, when they were succeeded in the usual 
 manner by the present set. He also expressly 
 asserted that he never had any molars, and 
 that he experienced no inconvenience from 
 the want of them. 
 
 ^' The features of this individual were regular 
 and good for a Burmese. The intellectual 
 faculties were by no means deficient ; on the 
 contrary, he was a person of very good sense, 
 and his intelligence appeared to us to be 
 rather above than below the ordinary Burmese 
 standard. 
 
 '^ He gave the following account of the 
 manner in which the hairy covering made its 
 appearance. At his birth his ears alone 
 were covered with hair, about two inches long 
 and of a flaxen colour. At six years of age 
 
OF THE HAIR, 73 
 
 hair began to grow on the body generally, 
 and first on the forehead. He distinctly 
 stated that he did not attain the age of 
 puberty till he was twenty years old. 
 
 ^^ Shwe-Maon was married about eight years 
 ago, or when twenty-two years of age, the 
 king, as he stated himself, having made him a 
 present of a wife. By this woman he has 
 had four children, all girls ; the eldest died 
 when three years of age, and the second when 
 eleven months old. There was nothing re- 
 markable in their form. The mother, a rather 
 pretty Burmese woman, came to us to-day 
 along with the third and fourth child. The 
 eldest, about five years of age, was a striking 
 likeness of her mother, and a pretty, interest- 
 ing child, without malformation whatever, or 
 indeed anything to distinguish her from an 
 ordinary healthy child. She began to teeth 
 at the usual period, and had all her infantile 
 teeth complete at two years of age. The 
 youngest child was about two years and a 
 half old, a very stout fine infant ; she was 
 born with hair in the interior portion of the 
 ear. At six months old it began to appear 
 all over the ears, and at one year old on 
 
74 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 different parts of the body. This hair was 
 of a light flaxen colour, and of a fine silky- 
 texture. When two years of age, and not 
 until then, she got a couple of incisor teeth in 
 each jaw, but had as yet neither canine nor 
 molar. Shwe-Maon assured us that none of 
 his parents or relations, and as far as he knew, 
 none of his countrymen, were marked like 
 himself. Shwe-Maon, we found, had been 
 occasionally employed by the Court as a 
 buffoon, having been taught to imitate the 
 antics of a monkey. For these feats, however, 
 the poor fellow does not seem very liberally 
 rewarded -, for to subsist himself and family 
 he was obliged to betake himself to the trade 
 of basket-maker, in which he was now em- 
 ployed. He would have turned his monstro- 
 sity to better account in London. ^^ 
 
 Of Maphoon Captain Youle gives the fol- 
 lowing account : — 
 
 " The whole of Maphoon^s face was more or 
 less covered with hair. On a part of the 
 cheek, and between the nose and mouth, this 
 was confined to a short down, but over all the 
 rest of the face was a thick silky hair of a 
 brown colour, paleing about the nose and chin, 
 
OF THE HAIR, 
 
 75 
 
 four or five inches long. At the alse of the 
 nose, under the eye, and on the cheekbone 
 this was very fully developed ; but it was in 
 and on the ear that it was most extraordinary. 
 Except the upper tip, no part of the ear was 
 
 Fig. 11. 
 
 visible. All the rest was filled and veiled with 
 a large mass of silky hair, growing apparently 
 out of every part of the external organ, and 
 
76 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 hanging a pendant lock to a length of eight 
 or ten inches. The hair over her forehead 
 was brushed so as to blend with the hair of the 
 head^ the latter being dressed (as usual with 
 her countrywomen) a la Chinoise. It was 
 not so thick as to conceal her forehead. 
 
 " The nose densely covered with hair, as no 
 animars is that I know of, and with long locks 
 curving out and pendant like the wisps of a 
 fine Skye terrier^s coat, had a most strange 
 appearance. The beard was pale in colour, 
 and about four inches in length, seemingly 
 very soft and silky. 
 
 ^' Poor Maphoon's manners were good and 
 modest, her voice soft and feminine, and her 
 expression mild and not unpleasing, after the 
 first instinctive repulsion was overcome. Her 
 appearance rather suggested the idea of a plea- 
 sant-looking woman masquerading, than that 
 of anything brutal. This discrimination was, 
 however, very difficult to preserve in sketching 
 her likeness, a task which devolved on me to- 
 day, in Mr. Grant^s absence. On an after 
 visit, however, Mr. Grant made a portrait of 
 her, which was generally acknowledged to be 
 most successful. 
 
OF THE HAIR. 77 
 
 '' Her neck, bosom, and arms appeared to 
 be covered with a fine pale down, scarcely- 
 visible in some lights. She made a move as 
 if to take ofi" her upper clothing, but reluc- 
 tantly, and we prevented it. Her husband and 
 two boys accompanied her. The elder boy, 
 about four or five years old, had nothing 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 
 abnormal about him. The youngest, who was 
 fourteen months old, and still at the breast, 
 was evidently taking after his mother. There 
 was little hair on the head, but the child^s ear 
 was full of long silky floss, and it could boast 
 
78 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 a moustache and beard of pale silky down that 
 would have cheered the heart of many a cornet. 
 In fact, the appearance of the child agrees 
 almost exactly with what Mr. Crawford says 
 of Maphoon herself as an infant. 
 
 ^^ This child is thus the third in descent ex- 
 hibiting this strange peculiarity, and in this 
 third generation, as in the two preceding, 
 this peculiarity has appeared only in one 
 individual. 
 
 '^ Maphoon has the same dental peculiarity 
 also that her father had — the absence of the 
 canine teeth and grinders, the back part of 
 the gums presenting merely a hard ridge. 
 Still she chews pawn like her neighbours .^^ 
 
 In respect to excessively long beards — in 
 men as well as in women — a great many 
 instances are likewise on record. At the 
 Prince-court of Eidam a life-sized portrait of 
 a carpenter is to be seen, who when working 
 wore his beard in a bag, for if freely hanging 
 down it reached not only to the ground, but 
 was still considerably longer, measuring in its 
 length nine feet. 
 
 In the times of the Turkish wars a Hun- 
 garian soldier is said to have been possessed of 
 
OF THE HAIR. 79 
 
 a beard so large as to cover his whole body. 
 Bartholin relates the history of a wandering 
 monk whose beard extended to the ground, 
 and in Braunau, a little town in Germany, 
 the grave of the mayor of that town — Hans 
 Steininger — is to be seen, whose beard like- 
 wise hnng down to the ground, and who, in 
 1572, lost his life in consequence of having 
 forgotten to raise his beard when mounting 
 a horse, whereby the former became entangled 
 with the stirrup, and caused the loss of its 
 owner's life. 
 
 Though the whole human body, as we have 
 seen, is covered with hair, yet it is compara- 
 tively rare to see an excessive growth on other 
 parts than the head, chin, eye-brows, and 
 pubic region; on the latter the growth in 
 rare exceptions beginning in the centre of the 
 abdomen. I have seen a lady who exhibited 
 an excessive growth of hair in both her ears, 
 forming long curls, reaching to the shoulders, 
 which could only be discovered and dis- 
 tinguished from the hair of the head, when 
 particular attention was drawn to them. The 
 hair within the nostrils may also become 
 much prolonged, and though excessive growth 
 
80 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 of the down is rare, yet tlie latter is like- 
 wise liable to prolongation, and then forms 
 
 Fig. 13. 
 
 the so-called hairy skin, of which we find an 
 instance recorded in the Bible. 
 
 Hildanus gives the description of a boy 
 covered all over with hair, and Thoresby, in 
 his ^^ Topography of Leeds,^^ relates the same 
 condition of a girl. Eiolan, in his work " On 
 Monstrosities/^ gives the history of a hairy 
 man who was even mistaken for a bear ; and 
 Van Home dissected the body of a certain 
 Martinez del Salper, who in a paroxysm of 
 ague had committed suicide, and whose 
 thorax, abdomen, back, and upper extremities 
 were entirely covered with hair, which on the 
 
OF THE HAIR. 81 
 
 back exhibited, moreover, the peculiarity that 
 the direction of the hair was not downwards 
 but upwards. The shoulders were just like 
 those of a bear. 
 
 In olden times, particularly in Greece, such 
 hair-covered men were called '^ Satyrs,^^ of 
 whom Plutarch, Diodorus, Arrianus, Pom- 
 ponius Mela, and many other authors, have 
 given accounts. 
 
 A well-developed specimen of excessive 
 growth of hair has recently been observed in 
 the metropolis by Mr. Paget, and published 
 in the Lancet of August, 1867. 
 
 The child represented in fig. 14 was ad- 
 mitted into St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 
 1865. 
 
 She was at that time twelve years old. 
 The left upper extremity and the greater part 
 of the corresponding side of the trunk and 
 neck were deeply stained with dark brown 
 pigment, from which grew an abundant crop 
 of brown, harsh, lank hair, varying in length 
 from one to two inches. The skin was rough 
 and harsh; the arm was long, thin, and 
 withered ; the scapula was naturally prominent. 
 In fact, the upper limb, shoulder, and back 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 bore a very strong resemblance to tbe cor- 
 responding parts of a monkey. The mother 
 stated that when three months pregnant with 
 
 Fig. 14. 
 
 the child she was much terrified by a monkey 
 attached to a street organ^ which jumped on 
 her back as she was passing by. 
 
 In conclusion^ attention must be drawn to 
 
OF THE HAIR. 83 
 
 the relation wMcli seems to exist between the 
 abnormal growth of hair and the abnormal 
 development of the teeth, as not only noticed in 
 the hairy family at Ava, and in Julia Pastrana 
 and her child, but as occurring also in animals. 
 According to Mr. Darwin,"^ Mr. Yarrell found 
 many of the teeth deficient in three hairless 
 '^ Egyptian^^ dogs, and in a hairless terrier. The 
 incisors, canines, and premolars suffered most, 
 but in one case all the teeth, except the large 
 tubercular molar on each side, were deficient. 
 With men, continues Darwin, several striking 
 cases have been recorded of inherited bald- 
 ness, with inherited deficiency, either com- 
 plete or partial, of the teeth. We see the 
 same connexion in those rare cases in which 
 the hair has been renewed in old age, for 
 this has '^'^ usually been accompanied by a 
 renewal of the teeth.'^ After referring to the 
 hairy family described above, and to the 
 Spanish dancer, who had in both the upper 
 and lower jaw an irregular double set of teeth, 
 one row being placed within the other, and 
 whose face, from the redundancy of the pro- 
 
 Animals and Plants under Domestication/' vol. ii. p. 326. 
 
 g2 
 
84 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 jecting teeth^ had a gorilla-like appearance, Mr. 
 Darwin is of opinion that these cases and 
 those of the hairless dogs forcibly call to mind 
 the fact, that the two orders of mammals — 
 namely, the edentata and cetacea — which are 
 the most abnormal in their dermal covering, 
 are likewise the most abnormal either by defi- 
 ciency or redundancy of teeth. 
 
 From the time of the Greeks and Romans 
 until now, authors have mentioned different 
 tribes whom they described to be covered all 
 over with hair, but as often as opportunity 
 has been offered to examine the truth of such 
 descriptions, they have been found void of 
 foundation. Recently the inhabitants of Yesso 
 have been described as hairy, and though 
 these descriptions have been repeated by diffe- 
 rent writers, we must nevertheless hesitate in 
 accepting them as true until still further con- 
 firmed by reliable travellers. 
 
 We extract the following from a paper read 
 by Mr. W. Martin Wood at a meeting of the 
 Ethnological Society of London, entitled ^^ The 
 Hairy Men of Yesso.-'^'^ 
 
 * " Transactions of the Ethnological Society," 1866, 
 vol. iv. p. 34. 
 
OF THE HAIR. 85 
 
 " Yesso is the most northern portion of the 
 empire of Japan. These aborigines are named 
 ' Ainos^ or ' Mosinos^ — the ^ all hairy people/ 
 — this last being a Japanese term which implies 
 their chief physical peculiarity. Their number 
 is estimated at about fifty thousand. 
 
 " The Ainos live quite in the interior of the 
 island^ and seldom show themselves at Hako- 
 dadi, or Mats-mai, two of the principal cities 
 of the island, except when on their embassy in 
 spring or in autumn, when they come to ex- 
 change their dried fish and furs for rice and 
 hunting-gear. Of a timid and shrinking de- 
 portment, these people seem utterly crushed in 
 spirit by their long subjection and isolation. 
 They are short in stature, of thick- set figure, 
 and clumsy in their movements. Their physical 
 strength is considerable ; but besides that pecu- 
 liarity, there would seem to be nothing by 
 which an observer can recognise the possibility 
 of the Ainos ever having possessed any military 
 virtue. The uncouthness and wildness of their 
 aspect is calculated at first to strike a stranger 
 with dismay or repugnance. Esau himself 
 could not have been a more hairy man than 
 are these Amos. The hair on their heads 
 
Se ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 forms an enormous bush^ and it is thick and 
 matted. Their beards are very thick and long^ 
 and the greater part of their face is covered 
 with hair which is generally dark in colour ; 
 but they have prominent foreheads^ and mild 
 dark eyes^ which somewhat relieve the savage 
 aspect of their visage. Their hands and arms, 
 and indeed the greater part of their bodies, are 
 covered with an abnormal profusion of hair. 
 The natural colour of their skins is somewhat 
 paler than that of the Japanese, but it is 
 browned by their constant exposure/^ 
 
 In order to show how contradictory the state- 
 ments of travellers are, who have even been 
 at Yesso and seen the inhabitants of that island, 
 I quote Barnard Davis^ account given in the 
 third volume of the " Memoirs of the Anthropo- 
 logical Society of London :" — 
 
 " There are certain questions which deserve 
 to be carefully examined. The hairiness of 
 the A'inos is one of them. They have had 
 conferred upon them the name of ' the hairy 
 men of Yesso,^ and both Chinese and Japanese 
 writers allude to this peculiarity. The Japa- 
 nese represent them as barbarians in an eminent 
 measure, and call them ' Morin,^ explained by 
 
OF THE HAIR. 87 
 
 Klaproth as ^ Hairy bodies/ They have also 
 been named ' Hairy Kuriles/ Still,, the more 
 instructed Japanese do the Ainos ^eater 
 justice. In a drawing of an Amo man made 
 by Syo-da Sabon-ro^ English and French 
 interpreter of the Embassy of the Tycoon of 
 Japan to Paris, in 1864, he is represented as 
 having long straggling locks falling down on 
 each side of his head, and a rough beard of no 
 very unusual length. Captain Broughton, 
 whose voyage was from 1795 to 1798, reported 
 that their bodies were almost covered with long 
 black hair, and that the same was to be seen 
 in some young children. Von Krusenstern 
 testified, from an examination of some Ainos 
 in the north of Yesso, that he found them, 
 with the exception of their bushy beards and 
 the hair on their faces, as smooth as other 
 people. In the great Bay or Gulf of Amiwa, 
 at the south of the Island of Saghalien, he 
 induced several to uncover their bodies, and 
 says, ^ We were convinced to a certainty that 
 the greater part of the Amos have no more 
 hair on their bodies than is to be found on 
 those of many Europeans/ He speaks of 
 ' the greater part,^ because in MordiomeflP 
 
88 ABNORMAL GROWTH 
 
 Bay he had met with a child only eight years 
 old_, with his body entirely covered with hair, 
 although his parents and several other adult 
 persons in the same place were not more hairy 
 than Europeans. Hence Von Krusenstem 
 declares the extreme hairiness of the Ainos to 
 be a fable^ or exaggerated. Such is also the 
 testimony of Lieutenant A. W. Habersham^ of 
 the U. S. Navy. His account is deserving of 
 quotation at length. ' The hairy endowments 
 of these people are by no means so extensive 
 as some early writers lead one to suppose. As 
 a general rule, they shave the front of the head 
 a la JaponnaisSy and though the remaining hair 
 is undoubtedly very thick and coarse, yet it is 
 also very straight, and owes its bushy appear- 
 ance to the simple fact of constant scratching 
 and seldom combing. The remaining hair 
 they part in the middle, and allow to grow 
 within an inch of the shoulder. The prevailing 
 hue is black, but it often possesses a brownish 
 cast, and these exceptions cannot be owing to 
 the sun, as it is but reasonable to suppose that 
 they suffer a like exposure from infancy up. 
 Like the hair, their beard is bushy, and from 
 the same causes. It is generally black, but 
 
OF THE HAIR. 89 
 
 often brownisli, and seldom exceeds five or six 
 inclies in length. I only saw one case where 
 it reached more than half way to the waist; 
 and here the owner was evidently proud of its 
 great lengthy as he had it twisted into innume- 
 rable small ringlets, well greased_, and kept in 
 something like order. His haiVi however^ was 
 as bushy as that of any other. As this indi- 
 vidual was evidently the most ^ hairy Kurile' 
 of the party_, we selected him as the one most 
 likely to substantiate the assertion of Broughton 
 in regard to ^ their bodies being almost univer- 
 sally covered with long black hair.^ He 
 readily bared his arms and shoulders for inspec- 
 tion, and (if I except a tuft of hair on each 
 shoulder-blade, of the size of one^s hand) we 
 found his body to be no more hairy than that 
 of several of our own men. The existence of 
 these two tufts of hair caused us to examine 
 several others, which examination established 
 his as an isolated case.^^* 
 
 This fully confirms the statement of Von 
 Krusenstern. ^^ They wear the hair of their 
 
 * Nott and Gliddon's " Indigenous Races of the Earth, 
 1857, p. 620. 
 
90 ABNORMAL GROWTH OF HAIR. 
 
 heads and their beards, usually their only 
 covering to this part of their bodies, long and 
 flowing, as a defence against the climate in 
 which they dwell, which at certain seasons is 
 sufficiently severe ; and it is probable that at 
 times they are unusually hairy/' 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR THE PHENOMENON 
 
 OF SUDDEN BLEACHING OF THE HAIR. 
 
 We have seen in a previous chapter that 
 the colour of the hair depends on three 
 conditions^ viz. : — 
 
 1. The colour of the cortical cells, which 
 plays the most important part_, and varies from 
 very light yellow, through intense red, and all 
 shades of brown, to a deep, dark hue, as seen 
 in the hair of the negro. 
 
 2. The molecules, consisting of pigment, dif- 
 fused through the cells of the cortical substance. 
 It is diminished in fair, and entirely absent in 
 grey and white hair, in which the colouring 
 matter of the cells may likewise have — though 
 not necessarily — disappeared. 
 
 3. The amount of air contained both in the 
 air cavities and the medullary canal. — It is 
 only recently that the part of the air contained 
 in hairs has been more carefully investigated 
 
92 THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 
 
 and recognised. About twenty years ago a case 
 was observed by Professors Scbultze and Baum 
 at Greifswald, concerning a bealthy youth, 
 sixteen years of age, wbose hairs were coloured 
 in such a manner as to form rings, alternately 
 coloured white and brown. This state, giving 
 to the head a grey appearance, was recognised 
 as dependent upon an abnormal amount of air 
 which had entered into the medullary tube. 
 This case was published by Professor Karsch. 
 The second case, of quite a similar nature, was, 
 remarkably enough, observed in 1866, in the 
 same city, by Dr. Landois. In this instance 
 the hair became grey in the course of a few 
 days ; and we may suppose that in most cases 
 in which the colour of the hair was turned 
 grey in a few days, nay, in a few hours (many 
 well-observed cases are on record) the same 
 process has taken place as that described 
 by Dr. Landois. He observed under the mi- 
 croscope the white spots to be filled with 
 minute air- vesicles, whilst the pigment could 
 be seen well-preserved in all parts of the hair. 
 Here we have an instance in which the hair 
 was grey, notwithstanding the cortical cells 
 were naturally- coloured. The air- vesicles were 
 
THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 93 
 
 not only confined to tlie medullary canal,, but 
 the cortical substance was likewise perfectly 
 filled with them. 
 
 Dr. Landois is of opinion that the air- 
 vesicles did not enter the hair from without, but 
 were developed within. That such may be 
 the case I shall be able to show when treating 
 of inflation and cracking of the hairs. 
 
 The third case was observed by Erasmus 
 Wilson, and read at a meeting of the Royal 
 Society in March, 1867 : — " The hair was taken 
 from a delicate but otherwise healthy boy, aged 
 seven years and a half, a gentleman^s son. Every 
 hair of his head is brown and white in alter- 
 nate bands, looking as if encircled with rings, 
 and this change of aspect extends throughout the 
 whole length of the hair, and gives to the general 
 mass a curiously speckled character. The 
 brown segment of the hair, which represents 
 its normal colour, measures about one-fiftieth 
 of an inch, and the two together about one 
 thirty-sixth of an inch, or one-third of a line. 
 
 '^Examination of the hair with a lens 
 shows that the cylinder of the hair is perfectly 
 uniform; that the white portion is contained 
 within the cuticle, and occupies the whole 
 
94 THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 
 
 breadth of the cylinder ; whilst it frequently 
 presents a rounded cone at the central extre- 
 mity^ and breaks up into fibres at the opposite 
 or distal end; and in some instances this 
 fibrous structure is apparent at both ends of 
 the white segment. Moreover, by transmitted 
 light, the white segment is found to be 
 opaque, and consequently presents a dark 
 shade, while the intermediate or brown por- 
 tion has the transparency of normal hair. 
 
 " When the transparency of the hair is in- 
 creased by immersion in Canada balsam 
 slightly diluted with spirits of turpentine, the 
 white and opaque segment is reduced in di- 
 mensions, and is rendered more or less trans- 
 parent by imbibition of the volatile fiuid. 
 Moreover, it is clearly demonstrated by this 
 process, that the opacity of the segment, its 
 whiteness when seen by reflected light, and 
 its darkness by transmitted light, are all due 
 to the presence of spaces in the fibrous por- 
 tion of the hair, filled with air-globules. The 
 air-spaces are necessarily very numerous and 
 assembled closely together, while at the ends 
 of the white segment they have more or less 
 of a linear arrangement, and give a fibrous 
 
THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR, 95 
 
 appearance to the opaque mass. Moreover, 
 the partial transparency of the hair caused by 
 the balsam demonstrates that_, besides the air- 
 spaces, large and small, contained in the 
 opaque portion, minute air-spaces, sometimes 
 arranged in linear order, and sometimes com- 
 municating and forming short, irregular canals, 
 are also met with in the transparent part of 
 the hair. And in addition to the minute air- 
 spaces of the plates of the fibrous portion of 
 the hair, an accumulation of air-globules is 
 also very apparent in the cells of the medulla. 
 " It is evident from this examination of 
 the hairs, that they are imperfect in struc- 
 ture and development, and that their imper- 
 fection indicates a weak producing organ, and 
 probably a weakly constitution of the indi- 
 vidual; that the cells of which the fibrous 
 portion of the hair is composed, instead of 
 being filled with a horny plasma, are tinged 
 with aqueous fluid, and the desiccation of this 
 fluid leaves behind it vacuities which, in the 
 subsequent growth of the shaft, become filled 
 with air. The most remarkable phenomenon 
 in connexion with the case, however, is the 
 alternation of imperfect and perfect cells; 
 
96 THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 
 
 the period of continuance of the two pro- 
 cesseSj supposing them to be equally active in 
 point of time^ being twice as long for the 
 perfect as for the imperfect structure. 
 
 " Since the publication of the observations 
 of Berthold in Miiller^s Archiv for 1850_, it is 
 generally believed that the hair grows faster 
 during the day than during the night. Hence 
 the first suggestion that occurred to me in 
 connexion with the present case^ seeing that 
 the white or opaque segment was shorter by 
 one-half than the brown, was that the former 
 represented the slower growth by night, and 
 the latter the quicker growth by day; the 
 white and the brown together representing an 
 entire day of twenty-four hours. But other 
 observations by myself have given, as the 
 average growth of the hair of the head in 
 persons who had been shaved, one-eighth of 
 an inch for the week, and consequently one 
 fifty-sixth of an inch for the twenty-four 
 hours. Now, the length of hair compre- 
 hended by the white and the brown in the 
 present case is one thirty -sixth of an inch, 
 and consequently a much more active growth 
 than is normally met with, corresponding, in 
 
THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 97 
 
 fact,, in a similar ratio, with thirty-seven hours 
 instead of twenty-four. 
 
 ^^ I therefore refrain from speculating upon 
 the cause of alternation of the healthy and 
 morbid structure presented by this case, and 
 restrict myself to the narration of the fact 
 that, during a certain space of time, amounting 
 to a day or more, the hair is produced of 
 normal structure; while during another space 
 of time, of undetermined extent, the hair is 
 produced unhealthily; that the periods of 
 healthy formation correspond pretty accurately 
 in extent, as do those of unhealthy formation ; 
 while the latter in measurement are only half 
 as extensive as the former; moreover, that the 
 differences of the pathological operation are 
 the production of a horny plasma in the 
 normal process, and of serous and watery cell- 
 contents in the abnormal process. 
 
 " I may further observe, that it is by no 
 means improbable that the ' dead^ and faded 
 hair which is met with after some illnesses, 
 and in instances of debilitated health, may be 
 due to a similar pathological process, although 
 wanting in the periodicity and alternation 
 which render the present case so remarkable.^^ 
 
S8 THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 
 
 From wliat we have said of the colour of the 
 human hair it is quite evident that a yellow, 
 blue, or green hue is not met with in a normal 
 state of the human hair. But, nevertheless, 
 such colours have been described by several 
 authors as occurring in the hair of man; at 
 times when the knowledge of physiological pro- 
 cesses was rather curious, and when authors 
 imagined they had acquired the clue to any 
 phenomenon when they were in possession of 
 a mere word for the same, such descriptions 
 have been given without examination of their 
 true value. 
 
 ^'^ Certain humours of the body,"*^ says Bar- 
 tholinus, " as, for instance, the bile, are green, 
 why should the excrements of these humours, 
 as the hair, not be of the same hue 1" 
 
 Biedlin describes yellow hair, but his case 
 was not a physiological one, the person being 
 a patient suffering from jaundice, and Biedlin^s 
 remarks are so very short, that it is impossible 
 to arrive at a certain conclusion in respect to 
 the colour of his patient's hair. 
 
 Green hair has been observed by many 
 authors, but in persons only who have been 
 working in copper mines or in copper factories* 
 
THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 99 
 
 Borillus describes an excitable friend of bis 
 wbo used to shed bloody tears wben in passion, 
 and mentions a medical student wbose perspi- 
 ration was of a green colour. "There is^ 
 therefore/' continues Borillus, ^^ nothing ex- 
 traordinary in the hair also being green tinged, 
 as I have recently seen in a youth/' 
 
 Peter Frank likewise relates some instances 
 of green hair in persons engaged in copper 
 mines. 
 
 Eble, the author of a voluminous book on 
 hair in the animal and vegetable kingdom, on 
 this subject refers but to observations of others, 
 and sums up his remarks thus : — " Blue and 
 green hair are generally ascribed to the me- 
 tallic evaporations of certain mines, and the 
 occurrence of such coloured hair in a normal 
 state has generally been denied. In such in- 
 stances, of course, experience alone can be 
 decisive, and since I have myself never been 
 fortunate enough to see a person with blue or 
 green hair, I must leave it to the reader 
 whether he chooses to believe in the ab- 
 normity or not.'' 
 
 Dr. Rommel, when a student in Italy, saw 
 at Padua a peasant thirty years of age, whose 
 h2 
 
100 THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 
 
 hair was entirely green, though he had never 
 been engaged in metal works, nor applied any- 
 thing to his hair. 
 
 According to Borillus, the labourers in 
 copper mines or copper factories are dis- 
 tinguished by green hair, those of cobalt 
 mines by blue hair; the workmen of brass - 
 factories, particularly such as are engaged in 
 pointing needles, by bluish or greenish hair. 
 It is necessary to know, says Eble, that the 
 colour in these workmen is not merely super- 
 ficial, but penetrates the whole substance of 
 the hair in such a manner as not to be wiped 
 off the hair^s surface. 
 
 According to the opinion of almost all ob- 
 servers to whom I have just referred, it seems 
 to be an acknowledged fact, that the abnormal 
 colour of hair occasionally met with, as for 
 instance green, blue, yellow, &c., is not natural, 
 but artificial, and that the occurrence of that 
 abnormal colour is limited to labourers in cer- 
 tain mines and factories, and that even in these 
 persons it is rare. 
 
 But, notwithstanding these facts, the cases 
 when met with are of interest, and the un- 
 accustomed aspect of a head perfectly blue, at 
 
THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 101 
 
 first sight astonishes the observer in a high 
 degree. 
 
 Having recently had an opportunity of ob- 
 serving a man adorned with blue hair, and 
 not finding that a microscopic examination 
 of hair_, abnormally coloured, has ever been 
 published, I give in the following woodcut a 
 fair representation of a blue hair, as taken 
 from the man just mentioned. 
 
 The hair was taken from a patient under 
 my care in the Metropolitan Free Hospital. 
 He was a labourer in an indigo warehouse, 
 fifty- eight years of age, and not suffering from 
 any serious illness. On his entrance into my 
 consulting room, my attention was at once 
 drawn to the peculiar dark blue colour of the 
 hair of his head. John Borne — that was the 
 name of the patient — has been employed for 
 the last twenty-five years in his present 
 position; the peculiar hue of his hair he 
 noticed about twenty years ago; he never 
 neglected to brush his head daily, and to wash 
 it now and then, whereby the water became 
 slightly blue coloured, without altering the 
 colour of the hair. 
 
 With his consent, I clipped a quantity off 
 
102 THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 
 
 Fig. 15. 
 
THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR. 103 
 
 his head for my collection and for examina- 
 tion. 
 
 The microscope revealed the appearances 
 illustrated in the opposite woodcut. They are 
 easily intelligible without long comment. 
 The hair is not uniformly coloured^ as if dyed, 
 but on its surface small particles of indigo 
 are more or less firmly attached to it, where- 
 by the whole mass of hair assumes an 
 appearance as if it were uniformly blue 
 coloured ; the indigo particles could, by means 
 of a knife, be scraped off the hair, which re- 
 mained grey, the natural colour of Borne's 
 head. The contrast of the grey, or rather 
 white hair, and the dark blue indigo particles, 
 gave a handsome picture under the microscope, 
 and as, besides the indigo particles, a very fine 
 dust of the same substance was attached to 
 the lines formed by the cells of the cuticle of 
 the hair, these lines were hereby much more 
 marked than is the case in normal hair. 
 
 Some of the hairs were partly or totally 
 wrapped in an indigo crust ; others were glued 
 together by means of the colouring matter, 
 which did not penetrate into the substance of 
 the hair. Whether the appearance of the 
 
104 THE COLOUR OF THE HAIR, 
 
 hair of labourers in mines or factories is dif- 
 ferent from that just described — ^viz., whether 
 certain oxides of metals are formed on the 
 surface of their hair in such a manner as to 
 combine with the hair substance as certain 
 hair dyes do, is not known, since — with the 
 exception of Eble^s short remark — no writer 
 has entered upon the subject. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INFLATION AND CRACKING OF THE HAIR. 
 
 It has been a matter of long discussion 
 whether or not such parts of the body as are 
 not immediately connected with and in- 
 fluenced by nerves and bloodvessels are liable 
 to disease ; the epidermis^ the nails, and the 
 hair are such parts of the human body. 
 
 There can be no question that the hair — 
 which concerns us at present — participates in 
 diseases of the body ; it loses its glossy appear- 
 ance, becomes brittle, inflated, and altered in 
 many respects, or alters its colour under cer- 
 tain circumstances. Now if disease is the 
 tendency of an organ or part of the human 
 frame to deviate from its physiological — that 
 is, the normal line of life, I do not see any 
 reason why we should not call alterations 
 occurring in the normal growth or structure of 
 the hair ^' disease.^^ 
 
 But all this refers only to the shaft of 
 the hair, for its root being closely enveloped 
 in the hair-sac, which is largely supplied with 
 
106 INFLATION AND CRACKING 
 
 nerves and vessels, undergoes many patho- 
 logical alterations. To these is due the fall- 
 ing-off of the hair, which may be the result of 
 total destruction of the hair-sac, or of the 
 bulb only ; in the former instance, permanent 
 baldness is the result, the skin assuming the 
 well-known glossy appearance known under 
 the popular term of " moonshine,^^ while in 
 loss of hair, without destruction of the hair- 
 sac, occurring after serious illnesses — typhus 
 fever, for instance — growth may take place 
 again. But under such altered conditions, 
 the production of hair substance and colour- 
 ing matter may be increased, so that the hair 
 may not only grow denser, but at the same 
 time be of an altered, generally of a darker 
 colour than before the illness, so that a fair lady 
 may become adorned with dark-coloured hair. 
 
 There are, therefore, diseases concerning the 
 hair shaft only, and affections concerning the 
 root of the hair alone, or the root and shaft 
 together. 
 
 To the diseases of the former kind apply the 
 remarks which we have made in a previous 
 chapter concerning the bleaching of the hair. 
 
 We have seen that this alteration may be 
 
OF THE HAIR. 107 
 
 the result of air entering the tissue of the hair, 
 an affection which from a certain point of view 
 may be compared to an abnormal state of the 
 connective-tissue, likewise produced by air, 
 which, under certain circumstances, enters 
 through a wound or otherwise, and is called 
 " Emphysema/'' 
 
 The first instance of an altered condition 
 of the hair- tissue arising from within the 
 hair, and causing alterations both in the shape 
 and firmness of the hair, was published by 
 myself in 1855, in the ^^ Transactions of the 
 Academy of Vienna,^^ vol. xvii. p. 612. 
 
 The disease which I have called ^^ Inflation 
 and cracking of the hair,' is illustrated in the 
 following woodcut, and has also been observed 
 by Erasmus Wilson. 
 
 The hair of the beard of the gentleman 
 in whom I first noticed the affection, was 
 marked by minute white points, from two to 
 seven and even more in one shaft. At first 
 sight these points made the impression of nits, 
 but on traction the hair easily broke off at 
 one of these little white spots, and when put 
 under the microscope, had the appearance 
 seen in fig. 16. 
 
108 IN FLA TION AND CRA CKING 
 
 Fig. 16. 
 
 
OF THE HAIR. 109 
 
 The figure shows one sucli hair in different 
 stages of disease. At h we see a mere bulbi- 
 form alteration of the hair; at c, a more 
 advanced stage^ the bulb not only being 
 larger, but parts of the cuticle being separated 
 unmistakeably by a pressure from within to 
 which they could offer no sufficient resistance. 
 This internal pressure seems to have been still 
 greater at d, so as to cause the whole circum- 
 ference of the hair to burst,, the broken spot 
 resembling two outspread brushes, meeting 
 each other by their ends. On traction such a 
 spot breaks off, leaving particles of the cuticle 
 and cortical substance as seen at a. Wilson 
 is of opinion than this affection originates, like 
 other defects of structure, in nutritive debility. 
 A physician, who consulted him for this state 
 of hair informed him that it began while he 
 was pursuing his studies at Edinburgh, that 
 he recovered during a short residence in Aus- 
 tralia, but that it re-appeared on his return 
 to Scotland. 
 
 The two gentlemen in whom I have observed 
 the alteration in question were strong and well- 
 nourished ; the growth of their hair was dense, 
 but nevertheless a defective nutritive condi- 
 tion may have existed in their hair. For 
 
no CRACKING OF THE HAIR. 
 
 there is no other explanation of the pheno- 
 mena just described than that of certain gases 
 having originated within the substance of the 
 hair, and exercising a pressure from within, 
 first gave rise to the bulbiform shape, which 
 ultimately resulted in the cracking of the 
 whole circumference of the hair^s substance. 
 
 This opinion gains strength by the fact of 
 the medullary canal being deficient at those 
 spots which have been cracked. 
 
 It need not be remarked that hair affected 
 in such a manner cannot be reinstalled in its 
 former state. Neither application of lotions 
 nor other remedies will be of any avail. If the 
 affection exists in a slight or moderate degree, 
 no interference is necessary, but when to a great 
 extent, so as to be disagreeable by the mere 
 aspect, the best advice is to have the beard 
 shaved, which must be repeated at intervals 
 should the affection recur. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be stated that only a 
 few such cases have been observed by Erasmus 
 Wilson and myself, and the gentlemen who 
 were the subjects of my observation exhibited 
 the disease in their moustaches and beards ; I 
 have not observed it in the hair of the head. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CHIGNON-FUNGUS. 
 
 Before the time when the chignon question 
 was discussed in the daily papers_, the term 
 " gregarine/^ I suppose^ was known to those 
 only who had made lower animal life their 
 special study _, and the question therefore natu- 
 rally arose. What is a gregarine ? 
 
 A gregarine is one of those beings which 
 stand at the point where the vegetable king- 
 dom terminates and the animal begins. It 
 is therefore but natural that some observers 
 look at gregarines as vegetable growths, while 
 others claim them as lower animals,, consisting 
 only of one or of a few cells which multiply by 
 division. There are many different kinds of 
 gregarines, one of which you may readily see 
 if you put the contents of the intestines of a 
 common black-beetle under the microscope. 
 
 It must be mentioned that other minute 
 growths, of the vegetable nature of which there 
 is not the slightest doubt, consisting also of 
 
112 THE CHIGNON-FUNGUS. 
 
 one or of a few cells only, resemble gregarines 
 very closely. 
 
 Now, in 1866, Professor Lindemann of 
 Petersburgli published some observations of 
 what he considered ^^ gregarines,^^ found by 
 him in artificial hair. The observations gave 
 rise to a kind of panic, as well amongst the 
 manufacturers as amongst the fair wearers of 
 chignons. 
 
 The question was taken up rather by the 
 daily papers than by scientific journals ; and 
 incompetent observers, who were not accus- 
 tomed to microscopic work, soon confirmed 
 Professor Lindemann^s observations. 
 
 It was just at that time when an oppor- 
 tunity was offered to me of examining a great 
 number of samples of hair, amongst which one 
 sample came from the premises of Messrs. 
 Hovenden and Sons, of City -road, who deal 
 largely in artificial hair. This sample gave full 
 explanation of what Lindemann had seen. 
 
 The " head of hair^^ from which the sample 
 in question had been taken, was laid aside by 
 the workmen employed in Messrs. Hovenden^s 
 workshop as totally unfit for being cleaned, 
 each hair exhibiting a number of knots, which 
 
THE CHIGNON-FUNGUS. 
 
 113 
 
 by the usual very perfect cleaning process 
 could not be separated. The hair substance 
 itself was not broken, as was the case in the 
 
 Fia. 17. 
 
 
 
114 
 
 THE CHIGNON-FUNGUS. 
 
 hair described in the previous chapterj but 
 proved firm on traction. On close examina- 
 tion each knot could be seen forming a sheath 
 round the hair, and with some precaution 
 could be wholly abstracted from it. 
 
 Fig. 17 shows the appearance of the hair 
 under the microscope, which at once revealed 
 the knots to consist of some cellular masses. 
 
 On preparing such a knot for microscopic 
 examination, so as to form a thin layer, and 
 viewing it under a high power, I could see 
 what is represented in fig. 18. 
 
 
 ■^v. 
 
 ^^'. ■■j.,rr -ax^.-s:. 
 
 ^^«lw» 
 
 ■~-::r: 
 
THE CHIGNON-FUNGUS. 115 
 
 The woodcut shows, besides chains which 
 are easily recognisable as belonging to the 
 vegetable kingdom, large round cells, con- 
 taining two or four (sometimes three) large 
 nuclei. These cells resemble, in fact, gre- 
 garines, and it may be mentioned that several 
 first-rate observers, to whom I have sent 
 samples of the hair, were at first sight of 
 opinion that they had Lindemann^s grega- 
 rines under the microscope, but closer exa- 
 mination soon showed this assumption to be 
 erroneous. 
 
 Dr. Kiichenmeister of Dresden, whom I 
 consulted about the nature of what I had re- 
 cognised as a fungus, asked the opinion of 
 Professor Rabenhorst of Dresden, one of the 
 greatest continental authorities on microscopic 
 fangi. Both authorities pronounced the fungus 
 to be a new species of pleurococcus, and 
 did me the honour of applying my name 
 to it, and, therefore, calling it Pleurococcus 
 BeigelL 
 
 Comparing this fungus with the beings de- 
 scribed by Lindemann, there remained not the 
 slightest doubt that this gentleman had seen 
 the fungus just mentioned and mistaken it for 
 i2 
 
116 THE CHIGNON-FUNGUS. 
 
 gregarines. A practical question now arose — 
 namely^ whether or not the assertion of some 
 observers be true^ that the growths^ be they 
 vegetable or animal, when in contact with the 
 human skin, produce a diseased state of that 
 organ. 
 
 This question has been satisfactorily settled 
 by me_, as will be seen hereafter. 
 
 Gregarines, if placed in a saccharine solu- 
 tion, or in such other conditions as make 
 vegetables grow, never alter their shape or 
 structure, propagating by division, and never 
 giving rise to such alterations as microscopic 
 fungi do, which may at once be recognised as 
 such. 
 
 The nodes of the hair form dirty brownish 
 thickenings ; if moistened with water they are 
 easily removable. The single cells are mostly 
 round, and at the time of partition as large as 
 -^'^ part of a line. After partition the 
 young cells very soon attain the size of -g-^*^ 
 part of a line in diameter. They are trans- 
 parent, and of a light green colour. They are 
 united in groups, and involved in a rather 
 thickish transparent green mucus. The ceU- 
 membrane is so thick as distinctly to show a 
 
THE CHIGNON-FUNGUS. 
 
 117 
 
 double contour, but no layers are visible. It is 
 homogeneous, and of light appearance like 
 glass. 
 
 These cells, when put into a saccharine so- 
 lution and exposed to a moderate temperature, 
 soon alter their shape, and begin to grow very 
 rapidly. After a few hours, when viewed 
 under the microscope, the large nuclei are seen 
 free from their common enveloping membrane, 
 and each nucleus becoming an independent 
 cell, containing one, two, or more nuclei and 
 nucleoli, as seen in fig. 19. 
 
 Fig. 19. 
 
 If the process of development be carried on 
 longer, they go through a number of stages, 
 and after about thirty or forty hours large 
 ramifications may be seen, and likewise the 
 
118 THE CHIGNON-FUNGUS, 
 
 reproduction of the original form of the 
 fungus may be observed^ as seen in fig. 20. 
 
 Fig. 20. 
 
 All these different stages have not only- 
 been produced and observed by me in sac- 
 charine and other solutions^ but the fungus 
 has likewise flourished for more than a fort- 
 night on my arm^ which was blistered before 
 the fungus had been transplanted to it; and 
 though the growth had taken place with great 
 rapidity, yet it has not only produced no ill- 
 effect on the skin, but the blistered place 
 healed up during the growth of fungus on it. 
 
THE CHIGNON-FUNGUS. 119 
 
 All statements which have been made in 
 respect to the danger of the "gregarines of 
 the chignons^^ have therefore been mere conse- 
 quences of gross ignorance or imperfect ob- 
 servation. 
 
 Firstly, because Lindemann' s gregarines were 
 no gregarines, hut fungi, 
 
 Secondly, because these fungi are not only 
 not peculiar to chignons, but the hair on which 
 they are met with is — as in our case — totally 
 unfit for the manufacture of chignons. 
 
 Thirdly, because not the slightest affection 
 would or could be produced on the skin, if by 
 some chance such a fungus should come into con- 
 tact with the body. For if it was not able to 
 produce any alteration on the skin deprived of 
 its cuticle, it would certainly still less influence 
 the skin with the epidermis intact. 
 
 In order to have the opinion of the highest 
 authority I sent some specimens to Professor 
 Hallier of Jena, who for the last few years 
 has been engaged in investigating the micro- 
 scopic vegetable growths. The results at 
 which this observer arrived were so very re- 
 markable that they have produced an entire 
 revolution in our views concerning those 
 
120 
 
 THE CHIGNON-FUNGUS, 
 
 minute beings to whicli our fungus belongs. 
 Dr. Hallier has not only shown that in the 
 evacuations of cholera patients and of patients 
 suffering from typhus fever peculiar fungi 
 are to be found in innumerable quantities, 
 but that the effect of the lymph used for 
 vaccination depends on the presence of such 
 
 Fig. 21. 
 
THE CHIGNON^FUNGUS. 121 
 
 fungi, and that they are likewise present in 
 measles, scarlatina, and other exanthematons 
 diseases. Though Dr. Hallier's views have 
 yet to undergo the clinical test before being 
 generally adopted, yet it must already be 
 acknowledged that the results of his researches 
 are of the utmost importance. 
 
 According to Dr. Hallier, no fungus can be 
 recognised as to the species to which it belongs, 
 before having germinated and been carried 
 through different generations, until its original 
 form has been reproduced ; for different 
 stages of development of one and the same 
 fungus may be so very dissimilar to the 
 original fungus, that up to the present time they 
 have been taken for separate species. Conse- 
 quently Professor Hallier has considerably re- 
 duced the number of microscopic fungi, and 
 has shown that many forms hitherto recognised 
 as peculiar species were nothing but different 
 stages, dependent on certain conditions of de- 
 velopment of certain fungi, which can be repro- 
 duced when the development is carried on. 
 
 By this method Professor Hallier has formed 
 the diagnosis of my fungus, differing from 
 that of Drs. Kiichenmeister and Rabenhorst. 
 
122 THE CHIGNON'FUNGUS. 
 
 According to Hallier, the fungus is a new 
 species of Sclerotium, belonging to the mould 
 kind,, to which he gave the name of Sclerotium 
 Beigelianum. Besides the fungus just men- 
 tioned, Aspergillus — another kind of micro- 
 scopic growth — is found in the nodes on the 
 hair. 
 
 Sclerotium is likewise but a stage of a well- 
 known fungus, Penicillium, which has really 
 been developed by Prof. Hallier on one of 
 the hairs sent to him, and fig. 21 represents 
 that hair, Penicillium reproduced on it from 
 Sclerotium. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A NEW DISEASE OF THE HAIR-SAC. 
 
 In May, 1868^ some hair of a lady was sent 
 to me by a well-known hairdresser,, asking me 
 for an explanation of some peculiar appear- 
 ances in the growth of the hair. The case 
 was this : — The lady had well-grown, dense, 
 and in all respects healthy and well-developed 
 hair, on the shaft of which large numbers of 
 whitish knots were visible, sometimes disap- 
 pearing, but returning again and remaining 
 for a considerable time. Their existence was 
 rather disagreeable, inasmuch as the white 
 knots could easily be mistaken for nits. The 
 lady paid very great attention to the manage- 
 ment of her hair, but in spite of the application 
 of several lotions she was not able to prevent 
 the recurrence of the disagreeable appearance. 
 Having been supplied with several samples 
 of the hair, the first thing which I could make 
 out by the naked eye was that the hair itself 
 was not diseased, but that the formation of 
 
124 A NEW DISEASE 
 
 the knots or slieath round it had either taken 
 place within the hair-sac^ or that it was 
 dependent npon circumstances not at all con- 
 nected with the hair. When the latter was 
 put under the microscope one could decide at 
 tlie first glance that these knots were totally 
 difierent from those described in the previous 
 chapter, and the following woodcut is a fair 
 representation of both the hair and knot, as 
 seen under a low magnifying power. 
 
 The hair appears perfectly intact and 
 normal in texture^ but imbedded in a white, 
 transparent, apparently structureless forma- 
 tion, of a very peculiar nature. The knots 
 are large enough to be seen by the naked eye, 
 some measuring a tenth part of a line in length. 
 They adhere by no means firmly to the hair, 
 but are rather loosely attached to it, and 
 may be stripped oflP very easily. Under the 
 microscope their formation in regular layers, 
 something like the slates of a roof, is very 
 striking. Although some of the divisions are 
 a little narrower than others, yet the whole 
 formation gives the impression of great regu- 
 larity. There appears to be, as already men- 
 tioned, no particular structure, the stratum 
 
OF THE HAIR-SAC. 
 
 125 
 
 being only finely dotted, 
 and here and there shri- 
 velled. This is when a 
 low power is used. But on 
 applying a higher power 
 to one of these knots, pre- 
 pared for microscopic ex- 
 amination by application 
 of water or glycerine, and 
 exercising some pressure 
 on the covering glass, in 
 order to produce a very 
 thin layer, a structure of a 
 very well-known kind be- 
 comes visible. The whole 
 knot, thus prepared, is 
 found to consist of cells, 
 identical with those of the 
 inner transparent layer of 
 the root sheath (see Chap- 
 ter v.). 
 
 Finding these cells, the 
 length of which corresponds 
 with the divisions or parti- 
 tions observable in the knot, 
 and illustrated in the ac- 
 
 FiG. 22. 
 
126 A NEW DISEASE OF THE HAIR-SAC, 
 
 companying woodcut (fig. 22J there remains no 
 other explanation but the one^ that a hyper- 
 plastic action — perhaps consequent on irrita- 
 tion or inflammation — exists in the sheaths of 
 the roots of the hair, producing an abnormal 
 number of cells^ which are glued together and 
 adhere to the cuticle of the hair while passing 
 through the hair-sac. This afiection^ as far 
 as I am aware, has never been observed before. 
 If the view in respect to the origin of these 
 knots be correct, the advice to be given in 
 this case would necessarily be such as to get 
 rid of the knots already formed, and to 
 prevent the abundant formation of new cells. 
 To arrive at the first-mentioned end, it would 
 be necessary to keep the hair well greased or 
 oiled, and to comb it often with a very fine 
 comb; for the latter purpose the application 
 of some astringent lotion would be required, 
 as, for instance, tannin, about two or three 
 grains dissolved in an ounce of water, or sul- 
 phate of zinc of the same strength. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MATTED HAIR PLICA POLONICA. 
 
 There is a disease of a most remarkable kind^ 
 the most prominent and most curious pheno- 
 menon of which consists in a matted state of 
 the patient's hair. This disease is called P/ica 
 polonicaj and occurs particularly in those coun- 
 tries inhabited by the Sclavonian race. 
 
 The aspect of a patient labouring under 
 this disorder is, particularly if the plica be in 
 an advanced stage, frightful. The disorder 
 generally begins with most troublesome symp- 
 toms — aiFections of the head, eyes, skin, &c., 
 increasing until the hair is either simply glued 
 together and turned into a perfectly felty mass,- 
 or growing in enormous quantities, sometimes 
 to an extraordinary length, and then becoming 
 plaited and matted. If the latter be the case, 
 the plica has been called by French writers 
 " Plique en queue/' whilst to a plica which 
 assumes the shape of a cap they give the name 
 
128 MATTED HAIR: 
 
 '^ Plique en masse." Another form is that in 
 ■which the head is covered with curls^ each 
 curl forming a separate small plica ; this kind 
 is known under the name of ^^ Caput Medusa.'' 
 
 The disease does not affect men only, but 
 the domestic animals also, the cattle, dog, 
 pig, and cat ; and it is a popular, although 
 erroneous belief, in the countries where plica 
 is endemic, that, when untangled or clipped, it 
 is followed by most serious symptoms. 
 
 It is of very great interest to know that 
 Shakspeare was familiar with the disease, as 
 well as with the circumstances just alluded to, 
 and it is therefore not impossible that the 
 affection, in his time, was not rare in this 
 country. At least we find in ^^ Romeo and 
 Juliet ^^ (act i. scene 4) — 
 
 " This is that very Mab 
 That plaits the manes of horses in the night ; 
 And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs. 
 Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes." 
 
 Of recorded cases of jplica polonica, ob- 
 served in England, we know only two instances, 
 which are interesting enough to be briefly 
 related in this place. The one case was ob- 
 served in the middle of the last century, and 
 the second in 1866 by myself. In the " Phi- 
 
PLICA POLONICA. 129 
 
 losophical Transactions^^ of May 28tli, 1747, 
 a letter was published by J. Amos_, secretary 
 of the Royal Society, directed to C. Mor- 
 timer_, M.D., running thus : — 
 
 "Good Sir, — June 22nd, 1746, in the 
 morning, Mrs. Hannah Coomes, a neat old 
 woman, whose hair (of plica polonica, as it is 
 called) I showed to the Society last Thursday, 
 came and gave me the following information : 
 — That she was of a gentle family in Staf- 
 fordshire, who had suffered much in the civil 
 war, and that her mother had her hair grown 
 in the same manner, whose maiden name was 
 Alice Goldsmith, but her own maiden name 
 was Hannah Bundley, born in the Haymarket, 
 in the Whitechapel, and baptized in Aldgate 
 on a Saturday in June, 1675. Her mother 
 having such short hair, used to comb hers 
 much to prevent it, till sometimes the blood 
 came. When she was about fourteen years 
 old, she perceived it to grow thick, just about 
 the back part of her head, and at length it 
 grew to this matted long substance I now see 
 it, of 109 inches long. She says she has had 
 four husbands ; the first, Nicholas Woodcock, 
 to whom she was married when about twenty- 
 
130 MATTED HAIR: 
 
 eight years old, and liad four children by 
 him j all died young, hut observed nothing of 
 their hair growing so. 
 
 " I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 '' J. Ames/' 
 The second case which occurred in England 
 was recorded by myself under the follow- 
 ing circumstances : — In the daily papers of 
 November 8th, 1866, a ^^ horrible disclosure 
 of misery^' was published concerning a woman, 
 Jane Mitchell, thirty-nine years old, of High 
 Road Well, about a mile from Halifax, who 
 had been discovered by the police. "The 
 spectacle,'-' says the report, ^^ was most dis- 
 gusting and appalling. Not an article of fur- 
 niture was to be seen in the chamber, ex- 
 cept a dark screen before the window. The 
 floor was in some places more than an inch 
 thick in dirt, potato parings, animal refuse, 
 woollen flocks, &c. He (the policeman) next 
 proceeded to remove the screen, and was ap- 
 palled to find a human being huddled up in 
 a lump, upon an old bed laid upon a wooden 
 trunk, the whole being with dirt as black as 
 a chimney-hole. Her hair was matted, and 
 her whole appearance that of wretchedness 
 
' PLICA POLONICA. 131 
 
 and squalor. She was not lyings but rather 
 reclining, or huddled with her back against a 
 pillow. The whole place she occupied behind 
 the screen was only three or four feet by half 
 a yard broad. When the curtain was drawn 
 aside she blasphemed, and wanted to know if 
 the policeman had come to kill her. The 
 sight was horrible. She refused to be re- 
 moved or touched. At her right hand was 
 a small darkened window, the recess of which 
 was filled with vileness. Since the discovery, 
 the sister^ Eliza^ has informed a neighbour 
 that it is three years since her sister was washed, 
 or had combed her hair, or had any chemise 
 on. She had at present nothing on but a 
 pair of old stockings, which had not been 
 changed for years. Eliza stated her sister 
 to be sufiering from bodily debility, not 
 insanity .^^ 
 
 Having read this report, I wrote to Dr. 
 Alexander of Halifax, asking him whether he 
 knew anything about the case, as, if there 
 existed anything like artificial plica polonica, 
 it should be found on the head of this 
 unfortunate woman. 
 
 My presumption was correct, and Dr. Alex- 
 k2 
 
132 PLICA POLO NIC A. 
 
 ander has been so kind as to send me two 
 specimens of plica, accompanied by the follow- 
 ing letter : — 
 
 ^' Dear Sir, — I cut the hair from the head 
 myself, and might have had any quantity, 
 since I recommended the head to be shaved, 
 as the only means of operating upon the 
 agglutinated mass, and cleansing the scalp. 
 The back hair was turned up into a knob as 
 usual, and one sample sent you was at the 
 end of it. It is evident, not being done in 
 ringlets, that it could not separately be plaited 
 in single plaits, like the loose end. All was 
 matted and encrusted. — Yours, very truly, 
 
 Wm. Alexander, M.D. 
 
 « Dr. Beigel." 
 
 When I exhibited some of the plicas in my 
 possession to the Pathological Society of 
 London at their meeting on April 17th, 1866, a 
 committee was formed, consisting of Dr. Cob- 
 bold, Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, and myself, 
 in order to examine the hair microscopically. 
 The report of the committee was read at the 
 following meeting of the Society, and has been 
 published in vol. xvii. of the Pathological 
 Society^s Transactions. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BALDNESS ALOPECIA. 
 
 A DISEASE which is very commonly met with 
 is that generally called ^^baldness^^ — alopecia. 
 It occurs in several different degrees^ and may 
 consist of the hair simply becoming thinner, 
 or total loss of it on a limited spot — known as 
 Area ; or of loss of the hair over the whole scalp. 
 In the first of these three conditions^ one merely 
 notices the hair becoming thin, and generally 
 a larger quantity remaining in the comb 
 when dressing, than is normally the case. 
 In the second form a small spot is noticed 
 which is deprived of its hair, and sometimes 
 rapidly increasing, extends over the whole 
 scalp. The hair sometimes does not fall out, 
 but breaks off immediately above the skin; at 
 other times other bald spots are forming while 
 the first is increasing, and either remain sepa- 
 rate or become confluent. Such separate spots 
 have usually a perfectly circular shape, and be- 
 sides some remnants of the former hair, a new 
 
134 BALDNESS— AL OPE CIA . 
 
 down is visible. If such spots become again 
 covered witli liair^ tbis is not by the old 
 stumps growing or becoming longer, but by 
 an entirely new formation of hair. 
 
 The stumps consist of the root of the hair, 
 which wastes at a very early stage, becomes 
 loosened, and therefore may be easily drawn 
 out by slight traction. In the course of the 
 disease the old stumps are pushed forwards by 
 the newly-formed hair, or by fungi growing 
 within and around the root of the hair. 
 
 At the beginning of the process, however, 
 the surface is smooth, white, as if polished, 
 and, according to some authors, less sensi- 
 tive. It appears as if the normal functions 
 had ceased at the diseased part, that circu- 
 lation has become disturbed, and the action of 
 the nerves altered. The whole process has 
 the aspect of a nervous disease, in consequence 
 of which shedding of the hair takes place. 
 Some have even observed baldness following 
 the course of certain nerves. The scalp is 
 generally the place where this affection occurs, 
 but baldness is by no means limited to that 
 region, and may also be observed in the beard, 
 eyebrows, or any other part of the body. 
 
BALDNESS^ALOPECIA. 135 
 
 The size of such spots in the commencemeiit 
 of the disease is about that of a shilling, but 
 sometimes much larger ; and when there exists 
 a large number of spots, they often form most 
 curious figures. 
 
 The disease is more common in females than 
 in males, and no age is exempted from it. We 
 find usually alterations of the general health 
 in the same individual, who is either badly 
 nourished, of weak constitution, or of a ner- 
 vous temperament. In eighty cases observed 
 by Mr. Wilson, fifty-seven were dependent on 
 nutritive debility, eleven on nervous debility, 
 nine on assimilative debility, whilst three owed 
 their origin to local debility. The remote 
 predisposing causes in these cases, arranged 
 in their order of frequency, were as follows : — 
 Scarlatina, rubeola, whooping-cough, organic 
 disease, anxiety, fatigue and afi'ection, preg- 
 nancy and parturition, rapid growth, anaemia, 
 neuralgia and nervous shocks, deficient food, 
 climate and season, congenital weakness, 
 deranged menstruation, fever, and eczematous 
 diathesis. The local injuries that had resulted 
 in area were — Accidental evulsion of the hair, 
 stinging by bees, and a bruised wound. 
 
136 BALDNESS— ALOPECIA. 
 
 The cause of the affection under discussion 
 being in the majority of cases some derange- 
 ment of general health, we cannot be surprised 
 to find the persons afflicted with this kind of 
 baldness generally of a rather weak consti- 
 tution. 
 
 The third form, depriving the whole scalp 
 of its hair, must be distinguished from the 
 baldness of old people; occurring in young 
 persons, it has been named " juvenile alopecia/' 
 The mode of action is the same in both 
 the juvenile and senile alopecia. In old 
 age the action of the nerves, as well as the 
 circulation of blood, becomes diminished, and 
 as a natural consequence, the energy of trans- 
 formation of substance and tissue decreases, 
 and therefore on the one hand hair is not 
 formed at all, and on the other, the existing 
 hair is not sufficiently^ nourished and falls off. 
 In concurrence herewith we find a head fully 
 grown with hair in such old people only as are 
 vigorous and strong beyond the average, and 
 enjoy excellent health. 
 
 The juvenile baldness consists of a total 
 absence of hair in young people, extending 
 sometimes not only over the whole head, but 
 
BALDNESS— ALOPECIA, 137 
 
 aflPecting even the eyebrows and face. In twelve 
 cases of this aflPection observed by Wilson^ five 
 affected the head alone^ four the eyebrows, the 
 eyelids, and the face, together with the head, 
 and three the entire body. The ages of these 
 patients ranged from five years to forty-one; 
 five being under twenty, two between twenty 
 and twenty-five, four between thirty and 
 thirty-five, and the remaining case forty-one. 
 The causes are the same as those of area, and 
 the connexion of the two varieties is manifest 
 by the fact that the general baldness often 
 begins as area, forming a small spot, and 
 extending afterwards over the whole scalp. 
 
 The disease may be congenital; this is a 
 very rare occurrence, and then if it occurs it is 
 generally partial. 
 
 In respect to the treatment of alopecia, it 
 must be remembered that the falling off of the 
 hair is not the disease, but the consequence 
 of the same. Medical advice is therefore 
 necessary, in order to investigate the nature of 
 the individual case, and to find out the cause 
 of the affliction. Hence it is evident that no 
 general remedy is possible, and that no cure 
 of baldness can be successful until the cause 
 
138 BALDNESS— ALOPECIA, 
 
 has been discovered and removed. If the 
 patient be of weak constitution or ill-nourished, 
 he must be strengthened ; if some important 
 functions_, as digestion, &c., have been deranged, 
 they must be restored to their normal action ; 
 if undue nervous activity be the cause, special 
 attention must be directed to the nervous 
 system, and it requires sometimes the most 
 attentive consideration of the case, and a very 
 rational treatment, in order to arrive at the de- 
 sired end. Some time ago I had a lad, twelve 
 years of age, under my care in the Farringdon 
 Dispensary, who, in the course of a few weeks 
 had lost his hair in such a manner as to leave 
 the scalp entirely bald. The boy was very ill- 
 fed, his complexion pale, and his constitution 
 weakened. After I had procured better food 
 and administered appropriate internal remedies, 
 the hair soon began to grow, and the head 
 regained its normal appearance, without my 
 having applied any local remedy in the shape 
 of lotion, ointment, plaster, &c. 
 
 But there are cases in which such local 
 applications may be used with benefit, when 
 the hair is first noticed shedding, or its growth 
 promoted when the primary cause has been 
 removed and formation of hair is beginning. 
 
BALDNESS— ALOPECIA. 139 
 
 The relation existing between the fungi present 
 in some cases^ and the alopecia, has not been 
 yet clearly made out^ viz., whether these fungi 
 are the cause or the effect of the disease. 
 
 There are many other diseases of the skin 
 affecting the hair and causing it to fall out 
 or break off, involving questions of a purely 
 medical character, and for which proper advice 
 must be sought. For the purpose of this book 
 it is sufficient to show, that diseases of the 
 hair — be they of a general or local character — 
 do not follow any other laws than other diseases 
 do, and that a knowledge of the whole human 
 body in its physiological and pathological state 
 is required in order to treat such affections 
 successfully. This is a proposition which is self- 
 suggestive, and which ought to be understood as 
 a matter of course, but I state it expressly, 
 knowing popular opinion to be in this respect 
 very often as curious as erroneous; hence the 
 open field for the trickery of charlatanism and 
 deception of all kinds in the department of so- 
 called " cosmetics .^■' If a general knowledge 
 were prevalent of the physiology of the hair and 
 skin, advertisements of specifics for ^''making 
 the hair grow,^^ &c., would soon disappear from 
 the columns of the journals. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR HAIR DYES. 
 
 After what I have hitherto stated^ it need not 
 be repeated that all panaceas and appliances for 
 the hair and skin_, the composition of which is 
 held as a secret,, have no other purpose than to 
 tax the stupidity and the ignorance of the buyer. 
 The secret is necessary for the charlatan, lest 
 his mixture should soon be recognised — as it 
 generally is — as consisting of the most simple 
 drugs, which one can get at every chemist^s 
 shop at a very much lower price than that 
 charged by the keeper of the so-called secret. 
 The only secret to me is, how it is possible 
 that people should be deceived by charlatans 
 daily, and nevertheless believe them, taking 
 notice of their advertisements and buying, 
 their concoctions. 
 
 Let it be remembered that hair, when 
 once altered in texture, can by no means be 
 brought back to its normal state; that skin 
 
MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR. 141 
 
 under no circumstances can produce hair if 
 deprived of the hair-sacs and papillse ; that if 
 the latter be present and the development of 
 hair nevertheless impaired, it requires not only 
 care but knowledge to discover the cause of 
 that impairment, and that the treatment must 
 tend to influence either the constitution 
 generally or the condition of the skin ; and 
 finally, that the hair already existing is en- 
 tirely out of question with respect to any 
 treatment. 
 
 Concerning the management of healthy hair, 
 the most simple means will prove the most 
 beneficial. Cleanliness of the scalp, cutting the 
 hair now and then, and keeping it moderately 
 greased by some simple pure oil or pomatum, 
 will suffice under all circumstances. Falling 
 out of the hair or other abnormal phenomena 
 are diseases, and must be treated as such. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be convenient to add some 
 prescriptions for the preparation of oils or po- 
 matums generally in use, and (like pomatum of 
 Quinia, or of Tannin and Quinia) considered to 
 act beneficially on the skin and roots of the hair. 
 
 The best means of cleansing the scalp is a 
 weak solution of alcohol in water, or a solution 
 
142 MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR, 
 
 of subcarbonate of soda^ distilled water, and 
 essence of vanilla. 
 
 The preparations called ^^ Bandoline/^ 
 '^ Fixature/^ &c.;, much used for the purpose of 
 rendering the hair glossy and fixing the ban- 
 deaux in the required position^ according to 
 the same author, are prepared of 
 
 Gum tragacanth. 
 Distilled water. 
 To be allowed to digest for five or six hours, then strain 
 through musHn, press, and add 
 Alcohol, 
 Eose water. 
 Mucilage of Cydonia and eau de Cologne are also 
 frequently employed for a similar purpose. 
 
 Prescriptions for Oil : — 
 
 Take — Provence oil, 3 oz. 
 
 Essential oil of sweet almonds, ) 2 drops 
 
 Oil of roses. ) of each. 
 
 Orange oil, 5 drops. 
 
 Lemon oil, 10 drops. 
 If preferred coloured, this may easily be done by digest- 
 ing a httle alkanet-root in it for a few days. 
 
 Marrow Oil.* 
 
 Take of — Clarified beef-marrow, 1| oz. 
 Oil of almonds ^ pt. 
 Melt them together and scent the mixture at will by a 
 few drops of any essential oil — viz., bergamot, cloves, 
 lavender, lemon, neroli, nutmeg, &c. 
 
MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR. 143 
 
 Macassar Oil.* 
 Take of — Oil of almonds (reddened) 1 pt. 
 
 Oil of rosemary, ) ^^ ^^^^ ^ ^^^^^^^ 
 
 Oil 01 origanum, ) 
 
 Oilofnntmeg,; f^^^^^g^ 
 
 Otto 01 roses, ) 
 
 Neroli, 6 drops. 
 
 Essence of musk, 3 or 4 drops. 
 
 Mix, and add alcohol drop by drop, with agitation, as 
 long as it will bear it, or until about two fluid ounces 
 have been added. 
 
 Suite Gomagene* 
 Take of — Marrow oil, 4 oz. 
 
 Spirit of rosemary, 1^ fluid oz. 
 
 Oil of nutmeg, 12 drops. — Mix by agitation. 
 
 Prescriptions for Pomatum : — 
 
 The simplest form of pomatum consists of 
 about two parts of hog^s lard and one part of 
 beef-suetj melted by a moderate temperature 
 and scented with some essential oil ; without 
 the addition of scent^ the mixture is known as 
 plain pomade. 
 
 Other formulae are : 
 
 Take — Plain pomade, 1 lb. 
 
 Provence oil, 1 oz. — Mix and scent it. 
 
 * The prescriptions marked thus are taken from Arnold 
 J. Cooley's work, "The Toilet in Ancient and Modern 
 Times." London : Robert Hardwicke. 1868. 
 
144 MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR, 
 
 * Take — Plain pomade, 1 lb. 
 
 Oil of bergamot, 1 draclim. 
 
 Oil of lemon, f draclim. 
 
 Oil of cassia, \ draclim. 
 
 on of cloves or nutmegs, 20 drops. 
 
 Stir and mix until it begins to concentrate, and then 
 pour it into pots or bottles. 
 
 Take — Prepared beef marrow, 3 oz. 
 Jasmin oil, 1 oz. 
 
 2^^^^^^f^.Ml scruple of eacb. 
 Bergamot oil, ) 
 
 Essential oil of sweet almonds, 8 drops. 
 
 ^^^^^"^^.f'hodropsofeacb. 
 Orange oil, ) 
 
 Tomatum of Quinia. 
 
 Take — Extract of cincbona bark, 1 drachm. 
 Lemon-juice, | drachm. 
 Rose ointment, 1 ounce. 
 Tincture of cantharides, ^ drachm. 
 Oil of lemon peel, 10 drops. 
 Oil of lavender, 6 drops. 
 
 Pomatum of Tannin and Quinia. 
 
 Take — Tannic acid, 8 grs. 
 
 Sulphate of quinia, 6 grs. 
 Dissolve in a sufficient quantity of rectified spirits of 
 wine. Add — 
 
 Liquified cocoa oil, 5 drachms. 
 
 Provence, oil, 2 drachms. 
 
 Pomatum of cantharides has been recom- 
 mended for falling off of the hair. Referring 
 to the remarks previously made on the value 
 
MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR. 145 
 
 of such general, recommendation, I give the 
 following formula : 
 
 Take — Prepared beef marrow, 2| oz. 
 Oil of jasmin, \ oz. 
 Neroli, 4 drops. 
 Oil of roses, 8 drops. 
 Oil of sweet almonds, 2 drops. 
 Balsam of Peru, ) 3 drachms of 
 
 Tincture of cantharides, ) each. 
 
 For the same purpose mixtures of can- 
 tharides have been sold, and the composition 
 held as a secret. They are generally com- 
 posed as follows : 
 
 Take — Tincture of cantharides, 2 drachms. 
 
 Spirit of mustard, 8 drops. 
 
 Rectified spirit of wine, 10 drachms. 
 
 Oil of lavender, ") i- j r in 
 
 ^., p , 1 J / 5 drops ot each has 
 
 Oil ot sweet almonds, f n i 
 
 r^.. c ( generally been re- 
 
 Oil ot roses, \ i -i 
 
 „ ,. \ commended. 
 
 Neroli, J 
 
 Oneteaspoonful of the mixture to be rubbed into the 
 scalp every other day. 
 
 Hair 'dyes are by no means a new inven- 
 tion, but have been used by the Greeks and 
 Romans, and we are still in possession of 
 prescriptions given for the preparation of such 
 dyes by physicians like Galen, Avicenna, Rhazes 
 and others. 
 
 Although a fashion has recently been revived 
 
146 MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR. 
 
 which was much practised by the ladies of 
 Rome — namely^ to give a light colour to dark 
 hair — yet it is the black hair-dye which 
 assumes the greatest importance, because in 
 general use, and therefore the subject of 
 speculation on the purse of the credulous, and 
 sometimes dangerous on account of the in- 
 gredients of the mixtures used. 
 
 The requirements of a good hair-dye are — 
 1. That it must not be injurious to the 
 general health. 2. That it must dye the hair, 
 but not the skin. 3. That it must have no 
 ill effect on the structure of the hair. 4. That 
 it must not require a long time for the pro- 
 duction of its effect. 
 
 A dye which possesses these four qualities 
 has not yet been invented, for of the two 
 principal chemicals used for staining the hair — 
 viz., nitrate of silver and lead, the former 
 colours the skin as well as the hair, while the 
 latter is poisonous, and liable to cause most pain- 
 ful colics, and even contractions of the limbs. 
 
 Mr. Erasmus Wilson has recently com- 
 mented on the subject, and we give an extract 
 of his views as reproduced in the British 
 Medical Journal, (1868, No. 412.) 
 
HAIR-DYEING. 147 
 
 ^^ The attention which we called some time 
 since to the new and perfect black hair dye 
 which Dr. M^Call Anderson lately inciden- 
 tally hit upon, produced a long series of com- 
 mentaries from accomplished dermatologists 
 and others well qualified to speak on the not 
 uninteresting subject. Mr. Erasmus Wilson, 
 a leader amongst the professors of dermatology, 
 now enters upon and discusses the whole 
 question in a series of very interesting obser- 
 vations in the Journal of Cutaneous Medicine. 
 He observes, that the hair owes its property of 
 dyeing to its porosity; which is evidently 
 greater than its physiological structure would 
 lead us to infer. Another of its properties — 
 namely, the presence of sulphur in its consti- 
 tution, renders it prone to darken under the 
 use of certain mineral substances — for ex- 
 ample, lead and mercury^ whose compounds 
 with sulphur are black. Thus, if a weak solu- 
 tion of lead or mercury be brushed into the 
 hair, a certain quantity of the solution will 
 penetrate the hair, and a dark colour will 
 be produced in consequence of the formation 
 of a sulphuret of lead or sulphuret of mer- 
 cury. The depth of the shade of colour will 
 
148 HAIR-DYEING. 
 
 depend upon the quantity of sulphur present 
 in the hair, and as red hair and light- 
 coloured hair contain more sulphur than dark 
 hair, the result will in that case be com- 
 paratively greater. But where the amount 
 of sulphur is too minute to produce the dye^ 
 science suggests the means of introducing 
 more sulphur, as is illustrated, by a reversal 
 of the process, in the following quotation from 
 a paper by Dr. M^^Call Anderson on eczema 
 marginatum : — ' During the treatment I acci- 
 dentally discovered what promises to be the 
 most perfect black dye for the hair which has 
 been seen. After having used the bichloride 
 lotion for some weeks, I changed it for the 
 lotion of hyposulphite of soda ; and the morn- 
 ing after the first application the hair of the 
 part which before was bright red, had become 
 nearly black. One or two more applications 
 rendered it jet-black, while neither the skin 
 nor the clothing was stained. I saw this 
 patient a couple of weeks later, and there was 
 not the least deterioration of colour ; although, 
 of course, as the hair grows the new portions 
 will possess the normal tint.^ The reason of 
 the escape of the epidermis, while the hair was 
 so thoroughly dyed, is, that it contains no 
 
HAIR-DYEING. 149 
 
 sulplmr. Mr. Balmanno Squire^ in a com- 
 mentary on the above process,, observes that 
 if instead of the hyposulphite of soda one of 
 the more common mordants be employed — 
 say, for example^ the sulphide of ammonium — 
 ^ instead of a black, a bright red colour will re- 
 sult. The modus operandi of Dr. Anderson^s dye 
 is this. The hyposulphurous acid, on being 
 liberated from the soda, decomposes into sul- 
 phurous acid and sulphur. The sulphurous 
 acid reduces the bichloride of mercury to the 
 chloride, and the sulphur converts the chloride 
 into (black) sulphide. The effect of sulphide 
 of ammonium on bichloride of mercury is to 
 produce the (red) bisulphite which is the 
 common vermilion of commerce/ Another 
 commentator on 'hair-dyes' observes that, 
 with the barbers, the ' sheet-anchor appears to 
 be lead and lime.' And again, it is recom- 
 mended to ' first wash the hair with a solution 
 (ten grains to the ounce) of nitrate of silver; 
 then use a weak solution of pyrogallic acid, 
 and wash.' An interesting article on the 
 subject, from the pen of an able chemical 
 writer. Dr. Scoffern, may be found in the May 
 number of Belgravia, under the head of Cos- 
 metics for the Hair. Dr. Scoffern reminds 
 
150 HAIR-DYEING. 
 
 us that the Persians employ iudigo to procure 
 a blue-black dye^ and the Turks and Egyptians 
 a ^ pasty writing-ink/ composed of pyrogallic 
 acid in combination with a native ore of iron, 
 while in the West the chief constituents of 
 hair-dyes are metallic bodies and walnut-juice. 
 The metals chiefly in use as ^ capillary chro- 
 matics^ are silver, lead, and arsenic; while 
 others applicable to a similar purpose are 
 gold, bismuth, iron, copper, cadmium, tita- 
 nium, uranium, and molybdenum. Lead, in 
 its crudest forin, is represented by the leaden 
 comb ; but as the progress by this means is 
 slow, a compound of oxide of lead or litharge 
 with lime, and made into a paste with water, 
 is more commonly employed. This is smeared 
 on the hair at night, the evolved gases being 
 imprisoned by an oil- silk cap, and in the 
 morning the dried paste is brushed out, and 
 the hair refreshed with pomatum. Or, if a 
 so-called brown, a *^ smothered^ or ^ fusty 
 black' be required, the paste should be mixed 
 with milk instead of water. The night is 
 preferable for these remedies, because the hair 
 is supposed to exhale more sulphur at this 
 period than during the day. These prepara- 
 tions remind us of a lotion in common use at 
 
HAIR-DYEING. 151 
 
 the present time, consisting of a drachm of 
 acetate of lead with twice the quantity of 
 sulphur to half a pint of water. The nitrate 
 of silver is another common form of dye, but 
 is open to the objection of staining the skin, 
 and, in fact, everything it touches, and also 
 of becoming iridescent on exposure to light, 
 producing, as Dr. Scoffern observes, a ' chro- 
 matic play of tints^ which is very undesirable. 
 Bismuth presents the same characteristics as 
 lead, but is not much used ; and when iron is 
 employed to produce a black tint, it requires 
 for its mordants either the pyrogallic acid or 
 the hydrosulphate of ammonia. Brown is 
 produced by the chloride of gold alone, as also 
 by a solution of sulphate of copper with a 
 mordant of the prussiate of potash (ferro- 
 cyanide of potassium) ; and titanium, uranium, 
 and molybdenum, judged by their chemical 
 behaviour, would give rise to similar results. 
 The ^golden yellow colour,' so much in 
 fashion of late, is produced by a solution of 
 arsenic with a mordant of the hydrosulphate 
 of ammonia. And cadmium would probably 
 give rise to a similar result. In the case of 
 dyeing the lighter tints, however, it becomes 
 necessary to submit the hair to a process of 
 
152 HAIR-DYEING. 
 
 bleaching, which is commonly effected by a 
 solution of one or other of the alkalies^ by 
 chlorine^ by the chloride of soda or lime, or by 
 sulphurous acid, bisulphate of magnesia or lime, 
 or peroxide of hydrogen. In general, the dyes 
 requiring mordants do not stain the epidermis/' 
 
 Hair-dyes are sold in the shops which pro- 
 fess to restore the original colour of the hair — 
 some of them are known as hair-restorers, and 
 sold at a high price, but the materials of which 
 they consist may be bought for a few pence. 
 
 The following Formula approaches as near 
 as possible the composition known under the 
 name of 
 
 ROSSITOR'S HAIR RESTORER. 
 
 Take — ^Acetate of lead, 45 grains. 
 
 Precipitated sulphur, 2 drachms. 
 Glycerine, 6 drachms. 
 Rose-water, 10 ounces. 
 
 Mix the sulphur intimately with the glycerine until 
 it is equally distributed, then add the rose-water in 
 which the lead has been dissolved. 
 
 A careful examination of the facts laid 
 down in this work, will show that all dyes 
 have only a mechanical effect on the hair 
 already formed, but no effect on that which is 
 in formation. 
 
 THE END. 
 
03 
 
 CO 
 
 
 ■o 
 
 c 
 o 
 
 5 
 
 DC 
 
 H 
 UU 
 DC 
 
U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 iiniiuiiiiiiiii 
 
 CD2DS37311 
 
BOOKS 
 
 PUBLISHED B7 
 
 HENRY RENSHAW, 356, STRAKD^ LONDON. 
 
 j Price 28, 6d,i sewed, 
 
 I THE SEVEN SOURCES OF HEALTH. By William 
 Strange, M.D., Physician to the General Hospital, Worcester. 
 Price 28. 66.,, sewed, 
 THE EAR IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. By 
 William HARVEr, F.R.C.S. 
 
 ON RHEUMATISM, GOUT, AND NEURALGIC 
 HEADACHE, IN RELATION TO AURAL DISEASE. 
 By William Harvey, F.RC.S. 
 
 DR. guy's contributions TO SANITARY SCIENCE. 
 
 THE CASE OF THE JOURNEYMEN BAKERS. 
 
 A Lecture. 
 
 THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE BRITISH 
 
 ARMY. A Lecture. 
 
 Price 58., cloth, 
 THE ORIGLNAL. By Thomas Walker. Coiitaining 
 
 many Inter '.vitiiig Articles on Social Questions. 
 
 BY A LONDON PHYSICIAN. 
 
 THE EVILS OF ENGLAND. Social and Economical, 
 i Price Is. 
 
 THE PLAGUE OF BEGGARS: a Dissuasive from 
 Indiscriminate Almsgiving. Price Id. 
 
 ; DEFOE'S GIVlirG ALMS NO CHARITY, and Em- 
 ploying the Poor a Grievance to the Nation. Adapted to 
 I Present Use, Price Id. 
 
 I THE NUISANCE OF STREET MUSIC; or, the Case 
 ! of the Sick, the Sensitive, and the Studious. An Appeal to 
 
 those who bribe Street Musicians to Annoy their Neighbours. 
 
 Price Id. 
 
 DR. L.AWRANCE ON LOCALIZED GALVANISM 
 
 applied to the Treatment of Paralysis and Muscular Contrac- 
 tion. Price 2s. 6d, 
 
 BRIERRE DE BOISMONT ON HALLUCINATIONS: 
 
 A History and Explanation of Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, 
 Ecstasy, Magnetisjti, and Somnambulism. Translated from the 
 French by Robert T. Hulme, F.L.S., M.R.C.S. Fcap. cloth, 
 price 78. 6d.