HAIR

HAIR, small filaments, issuing out of the pores of the skins of animals; and serving most of them as a tegument or covering*.—In lieu of hair, the nakedness of some animals is covered with feathers, wool, skins, &c.

Hair is found on all parts of the human body, except the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands. — But it grows longest on the head, chin, breast, in the arm-pits, and about the privities.

The ancients held the hair a sort of excrement, fed only with excrementitious matters, and no proper part of a living body. — They supposed it generated of the

fuliginous parts of the blood, exhaled by the heat of the body to the surface, and there condensed in passing through the pores. — Their chief reasons were, that the hair being cut, will grow again apace, even in extreme old age, and when life is very low: that in hectic and consumptive people, where the rest of the body is continually emaciating and attenuating, the hair shall thrive: nay, and that it will grow again in dead carcasses. — They added, that hair does not feed and grow, like the other parts, by introitusception, i. e. by a juice circulating within it: but, like the nails, by juxtaposition, each part next the root thrusting forward that immediately before it.

But the moderns are agreed, that every hair does properly and truly live, and receive nutriment to fill and distend it like the other parts: which they argue hence, that the roots do not turn grey in aged persons sooner than the extremities, but the whole changes colour at once, and the like is observed in boys, &c.; which shews that there is a direct communication, and that all the parts are affected alike.

It may be observed, however, that, in propriety, the life and growth of hairs is of a different kind from that of the rest of the body; and is not immediately derived therefrom, or reciprocated therewith. — It is rather of the nature of vegetation. They grow as plants do out of the earth; or as some plants shoot from the parts of others; from which though they draw their nourishment, yet each has, as it were, its several life and a distinct economy. — They derive their food from some juices in the body, but not from the nutritious juices of the body; whence they may live, tho' the body be starved. — Wulferus, in the Philosophical Collections, gives an account of a woman buried at Norimberg, whose grave being opened 43 years after her death, there was hair found issuing forth plentifully through the clefts of the coffin; inasmuch, that there was reason to imagine the coffin had some time been covered all over with hair. — The cover being removed, the whole corps appeared in its perfect shape; but, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, covered over with a thick-set hair, long and curled. — The sexton going to handle the upper part of the head with his fingers, the whole structure fell at once, leaving nothing in his hand but a handful of hair: there was neither skull nor any other bone left; yet the hair was solid and strong enough. — Mr Arnold, in the same collection, gives a relation of a man hanged for theft, who, in a little time, while he yet hung upon the gallows, had his body strangely covered over with hair. — Some moderns, however, deny the authenticity of these and other similar instances.

The hairs ordinarily appear round or cylindrical; but the microscope also discovers triangular and square ones; which diversity of figure arises from that of the pores, to which the hairs always accommodate themselves. Their length depends on the quantity of the proper humour to feed them, and their colour on the quality of that humour: whence, at different stages of life, the colour usually differs. Their extremities split into two or three branches, especially when kept dry, or suffered to grow too long; so that what appears only a single hair to the naked eye, seems a brush to the microscope.

The hair of a mouse, viewed by Mr Derham with a micro-

Hair. microscope, seemed to be one single transparent tube, with a pith made up of fibrous substances, running in dark lines, in some hairs transversely, in others spirally. The darker medullary parts or lines, he observes, were no other than small fibres convolved round, and lying closer together than in the other parts of the hair. They run from the bottom to the top of the hair; and, he imagines, may serve to make a gentle evacuation of some humour out of the body. Hence the hair of hairy animals, this author suggests, may not only serve as a fence against cold, &c. but as an organ of insensible perspiration.

Though the external surface of the body is the natural place for hairs, we have many well-attested instances of their being found also on the internal surface. Amatus Lusitanus mentions a person who had hair upon his tongue. Pliny and Valerius Maximus concur in their testimonies, that the heart of Aristo-thenes the Messenian was hairy. Cælius Rhodiginus relates the fame of Hermogenes the rhetorician; and Plutarch, of Leonidas the Spartan. — Hairs are said to have been frequently found in the breasts of women, and to have occasioned the distemper called trichiasis; but some authors are of opinion, that these are small worms and not hairs. There have been, however, various and indisputable observations of hairs found in the kidneys, and voided by urine.

Hippocrates is of opinion, that the glandular parts are the most subject to hair; but bundles of hair have been found in the muscular parts of beef, and in such parts of the human body as are equally firm with that. — Hair has been often found in abscesses and imposthumes. Schultetus, opening the abdomen of a woman, found 12 pints of water, and a large lock or bundle of hair swimming loose in it. But of all the internal parts, there is none so much subject to an unnatural growth of hair as the ovaries of females, and that as well of the human species as of other animals. Of this Dr. Tyson relates three remarkable instances; two of these were young women, and the other was a bitch. The animal had been much emaciated in its hinder parts; the hair was about an inch and an half long; but the most remarkable particular was, that hair was also found lying loose in the cavities of the veins. We have several instances of mankind being affected in the same manner. Cardan relates, that he found hair in the blood of a Spaniard; and Slonatus in that of a gentlewoman of Cracovia; and Schultetus declares from his own observation, that those people who are afflicted with the plica polonica, have very often hair in their blood.

Diseases of the Hair. Almost the only disease of the hair, besides the remarkable one called placa polonica, is its falling off, or balneosis. For this many remedies have been recommended, but scarce any of them can be depended upon. The juice of burdock, and the lixivial salts of vine-ashes, are said to be efficacious; also the powder of hermodactyls, and the decoction of boxwood. A remarkable instance of the efficacy of this last is given under the article Buxus. — Some authors give instances of the hair changing its colour in a short time, thro' grief, or by reason of a fright, &c.

Human-Hair makes a considerable article of trade; the goodness of it consists in its being neither too coarse nor too slender.

Hair that does not curl or buckle naturally, is made to do so by first boiling, and then baking it. Having sorted it, they next roll it carefully upon pipes hollowed in the middle; these they put into a pot or cauldron, and let them boil about two hours; then taking them out, they are dried and covered with papers; and, lastly, sent to the pastry-cook, who bakes them in an oven, till the crust with which they are covered is about three fourths baked.

The hair of several other animals, as the beaver, hare, coney, &c. is also used in commerce, and especially in the manufacture of hats. See HAT.

Staining of Hair. Hair may be changed from a red, grey, or other disagreeable colour, to a brown or deep black, by a solution of silver. The liquors sold under the name of hair-waters, are at bottom no more than solutions of silver in aqua-fortis, largely diluted with water, with the addition perhaps of other ingredients, which contribute nothing to their efficacy. The solution should be fully saturated with the silver, that there may be no more acid in it than is necessary for holding the metal dissolved; and besides dilution with water, a little spirit of wine may be added for the further dulcification of the acid. It must be observed, that, for diluting the solution, distilled water, or pure rain-water, must be used; the common spring-waters turning it milky, and precipitating a part of the dissolved silver. It is to be observed also, that if the liquor touches the skin, it has the same effect on it as on the matter to be stained, changing the part moistened with it to an indelible black. — Hair may also be dyed of any colour in the same manner as wool. * See Dye-

Hair as an Emblem of Dignity, or of Religion. It was esteemed a notable honour among the ancient Gauls to have long hair, and hence came the appellation Gallia comata. For this reason Julius Cæsar, upon subduing the Gauls, made them cut off their hair as a token of submission. — It was with a view to this, that such as afterwards quitted the world to go and live in cloisters, procured their hair to be shaven off; to shew that they bid adieu to all earthly ornaments, and made a vow of perpetual subjection to their superiors.

Greg. of Tours assures us, that in the royal family of France, it was a long time the peculiar mark and privilege of kings and princes of the blood to wear long hair, artfully dressed and curled: every body else was obliged to be polled, or cut round, in sign of inferiority and obedience. Some writers assure us, that there were different cuts for all the different qualities and conditions; from the prince who wore it at full length, to the slave or villain who was quite cropt. — To cut off the hair of a son of France, under the first race of kings, was to declare him excluded from the right of succeeding to the crown, and reduced to the condition of a subject.

In the eighth century, it was the custom of people of quality to have their children's hair cut the first time by persons they had a particular honour and esteem for; who, in virtue of this ceremony, were reputed a sort of spiritual parents or godfathers thereof: Tho' this practice appears to have been more ancient; inasmuch as we read, that Constantine sent the pope the hair of his son Heraclius, as a token that he desired him to be his adoptive father.

The parade of long hair became still more and more

obnoxious in the progress of Christianity, as something utterly inconsistent with the profession of persons who bore the cross. Hence numerous injunctions and canons to the contrary.—Pope Anicetus is commonly supposed to have been the first who forbade the clergy to wear long hair: but the prohibition is of an older standing in the churches of the east; and the letter wherein that decree is wrote, is of a much later date than that pope.—The clerical tonsure is related by Isidore Hispalensis, as of apostolical institution.

Long hair was anciently held so odious, that there is a canon still extant of the year 1096, importing, that such as wore long hair, should be excluded coming into church while living, and not be prayed for when dead.

We have a furious declamation of Luitprand against the emperor Phocas, for wearing long hair, after the manner of the other emperors of the east, all except Theophilus, who being bald, enjoined all his subjects to shave their heads.

The French historians and antiquaries have been very exact in recording the head of hair of their several kings. Charlemagne wore it very short, his son shorter; Charles the bald had none at all. Under Hugh Capet it began to appear again; this the ecclesiastics took in dudgeon, and excommunicated all who let their hair grow. Peter Lombard expostulated the matter so warmly with Charles the Young, that he cut off his hair; and his successors for some generations wore it very short.—A professor of Utrecht, in 1650, wrote expressly on the question, Whether it be lawful for men to wear long hair? and concluded for the negative.—Another divine, named Reves, who had wrote for the affirmative, replied to him.

The Greeks, and after their example, the Romans, wore false hair. See PERUKE.