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 naked* See An- nals of some animals is covered with feathers, wool, scales, &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 armpits, 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 introfusception, 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 defend it like the other parts; which they argue hence hence, that the roots do not turn gray in aged persons sooner than the extremities, but the whole changes colour at once, and the like is observed in boys, &c.; which shows 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; whence they may live though the body be starved.—Wulferus, in the Philosophical Collections, gives an account of a woman buried at Nurnberg, whose grave being opened forty-three years after her death, there was hair found issuing forth plentifully through the clefts of the coffin; inomuch, 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 an 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 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 of 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 Ariftomenes the Messenian was hairy. Cælius Rhodiginus relates the same 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 ableseeds and impotibilities. 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 Sionatius 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 plica polonica, is its falling off, or baldness. 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 hemodactyls, 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, through grief, or by reason of a fright, &c.

Hair as an Ornament, or as an Ensign of Dignity or of Religion. By the Jews hair was worn naturally long, just as it grew; but the priests had theirs cut every fortnight, while they were in waiting at the temple; they made use of no razors, however, but scissors only. The Nazarites, while their vow continued, were forbidden to touch their heads with a razor. See Nazarite.

The falling of the hair, or a change of its colour, was regarded amongst the Hebrews as a sign of the leprosy. Black hair was esteemed by them as the most beautiful. Absalom's hair was cut once a-year, and is said to have weighed 200 shekels, by the king's weight, which is about 31 ounces. The law of God hath left no particular ordinances with respect to the hair.

The hair of both Jewish and Grecian women engaged a principal share of their attention, and the Roman ladies ladies seem to have been no less curious with respect to theirs. They generally wore it long, and dressed it in a variety of ways, ornamenting it with gold, silver, pearls, &c. On the contrary, the men amongst the Greeks and Romans, and amongst the later Jews, wore their hair short, as may be collected from books, medals, statues, &c. This formed a principal distinction in dress betwixt the sexes. This observation illustrates a passage in St Paul's epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. xi. 14-15.)

St Paul forbids the Corinthian women, when praying by divine inspiration, to have their hair dishevelled; probably because this made them resemble the heathen priestesses, when actuated by the pretended influence of their gods.

Amongst the Greeks, both sexes, a few days before marriage, cut off and consecrated their hair as an offering to their favourite deities. It was also customary among them to hang the hair of the dead on the doors of their houses previous to interment. They likewise tore, cut off, and sometimes shaved their hair, when mourning for their deceased relations or friends, which they laid upon the corpse or threw into the pile, to be consumed together with the body. The ancients imagined that no person could die till a lock of hair was cut off; and this act they supposed was performed by the invisible hand of death, or Iris, or some other messenger of the gods. This hair, thus cut off, they fancied consecrated the person to the infernal deities, under whose jurisdiction the dead were supposed to be. It was a sort of first fruits which sanctified the whole. (See Virg. Aen. iv. 694.)

Whatever was the fashion with respect to the hair, in the Grecian states, slaves were forbidden to imitate the freemen. The hair of the slaves was always cut in a particular manner, called ἐπικεφαλοποιημένος, which they no longer retained after they procured their freedom.

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 Caesar, 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 show that they bade adieu to all earthly ornaments, and made a vow of perpetual subjection to their superiors.

Greg. of Tours affirms 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 cropped.—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: Though 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 written, 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 written for the affirmative, replied to him.

The ancient Britons were extremely proud of the length and beauty of their hair, and were at much pains in dressing and adorning their heads. Some of them carried their fondness for and admiration of their hair to an extravagant height. It is said to have been the last and most earnest request of a young warrior, who was taken prisoner and condemned to be beheaded, 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. We hardly ever meet with a description of a fine woman or beautiful man, in the poems of Ossian, but their hair is mentioned as one of their greatest beauties. Not contented with the natural colour of their hair, which was commonly fair or yellow, they made use of certain washes to render it still brighter. One of these washes was a composition of lime, the ashes of certain vegetables, and tallow. They made use of various arts also to make the hair of their heads grow thick and long; which last was not only esteemed a great beauty, but was considered as a mark of dignity and noble birth. Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, is described by Dio with very long hair, flowing over her shoulders, and reaching down below the middle of her back. The Britons shaved all their beards, except their upper lips; the hair of which they, as well as the Gauls, allowed to grow to a very inconvenient length.

In after-times, the Anglo-Saxons and Danes also considered fine hair as one of the greatest beauties and ornaments of their persons, and were at no little pains in dressing it to advantage. Young ladies before marriage wore their hair uncovered and untied, flowing in ringlets over their shoulders; but as soon as they were married, they cut it shorter, tied it up, and put on a head-dress of some kind or other according to the prevailing fashion. To have the hair entirely cut off was so great a disgrace, that it was one of the greatest punishments inflicted on those women who were guilty of adultery. The Danish soldiers who were quartered upon the English, in the reigns of Edgar the Peaceable and of Ethelred the Unready, were the beaux of those times, and were particularly attentive to the dressing of their hair; which they combed at least once every day, and thereby captivated the affections of the English ladies. The clergy, both secular and regular, were obliged to shave the crowns of their heads, and keep their hair short, which distinguished them from the laity; and several canons were made against their concealing their tonsure, or allowing their hair to grow long. The shape of this clerical tonsure was the subject of long and violent debates between the English clergy on the one hand, and those of the Scots and Picts on the other; that of the former being circular, and that of the latter only semicircular. It appears very plainly, that long flowing hair was universally esteemed a great ornament; and the tonsure of the clergy was considered as an act of mortification and self-denial, to which many of them submitted with reluctance, and endeavoured to conceal as much as possible. Some of them who affected the reputation of superior sanctity inveighed with great bitterness against the long hair of the laity; and laboured earnestly to persuade them to cut it short, in imitation of the clergy. Thus the famous St Wulstan bishop of Worcester, is said to have declaimed with great vehemence against luxury of all kinds, but chiefly against long hair as most criminal and most universal. "The English (says William of Malmesbury in his life of St Wulstan) were very vicious in their manners, and plunged in luxury, through the long peace which they had enjoyed in the reign of Edward the Confessor. The holy prelate Wulstan reproved the wicked of all ranks with great boldness; but he rebuked those with the greatest severity who were proud of their long hair. When any of those vain people bowed their heads before him to receive his blessing, before he gave it, he cut a lock of their hair with a little sharp knife, which he carried about him for that purpose; and commanded them, by way of penance for their sins, to cut all the rest of their hair in the same manner. If any of them refused to comply with this command, he denounced the most dreadful judgments upon them, reproached them for their effeminacy, and foretold, that as they imitated women in the length of their hair, they would imitate them in their cowardice when their country was invaded; which was accomplished at the landing of the Normans."

This continued to be long a topic of declamation among the clergy, who even represented it as one of the greatest crimes, and most certain marks of reprobation. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, went so far as to pronounce the then terrible sentence of excommunication against all who wore long hair, for which pious zeal he is very much commended. Serlo, a Norman bishop, acquired great honour by a sermon which he preached before Henry I. A.D. 1104, against long and curled hair, with which the king and all his courtiers were so much affected, that they consented to resign their flowing ringlets, of which they had been so vain. The prudent prelate gave them no time to change their minds, but immediately pulled a pair of shears out of his sleeve, and performed the operation with his own hand. Another incident happened about 25 years after, which gave a temporary check to the prevailing fondness for long hair. It is thus related by a contemporary historian: "An event happened, A.D. 1129, which seemed very wonderful to our young gallants; who, forgetting that they were men, had transformed themselves into women by the length of their hair. A certain knight, who was very proud of his long luxuriant hair, dreamed that a person hallucinated him with its curls. As soon as he awoke from his sleep, he cut his hair to a decent length. The report of this spread over all England, and almost all the knights reduced their hair to the proper standard. But this reformation was not of long continuance; for in less than a year all who wished to appear fashionable returned to their former wickedness, and contended with the ladies in length of hair. Those to whom nature had denied that ornament supplied the defect by art.

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

Commerce of Hair. Hair makes a very considerable article in commerce, especially since the mode of periwigs has obtained. The hair of the growth of the northern countries, as England, &c. is valued much beyond that of the more southern ones, as Italy, Spain, the south parts of France, &c. The merit of good hair consists in its being well fed, and neither too coarse nor too slender; the bigness rendering it less susceptible of the artificial curl, and disposing it rather to frizzle, and the smallness making its curl of too short duration. Its length should be about 25 inches; the more it falls short of this, the less value it bears.

There is no certain price for hair; but it is sold from five shillings to five pounds an ounce, according to its quality.

The scarcity of gray and white hair has put the dealers in that commodity upon the methods of reducing other colours to this. This is done by spreading the hair to bleach on the grass like linen, after first washing it out in a lixivious water. This dye, with the force of the sun and air, brings the hair to so perfect a whiteness, that the most experienced person may be deceived therein; there being scarce any way of detecting the artifice, but by boiling and drying it, which leaves the hair of the colour of a dead walnut-tree leaf.

There is also a method of dyeing hair with bismuth, which renders such white hair as borders too much upon the yellow of a bright silver colour: boiling is the proof of this too, the bismuth not being able to stand it. Hair may be also changed from a red, gray, 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 aquafortis, 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.

Hair which does not curl or buckle naturally, is brought to it by art, by first boiling and then baking it in the following manner: After having picked and sorted the hair, and disposed it in parcels according to lengths, they roll them up and tie them tight down upon little cylindrical instruments, either of wood or earthen ware, a quarter of an inch thick, and hollowed a little in the middle, called pipes, in which flate they are put in a pot over the fire, there to boil for about two hours. When taken out, they let them dry; and when dried, they spread them on a sheet of brown paper, cover them with another, and thus send them to the pastry-cook; who making a crust or coffin around them of common paste, sets them in an oven till the crust is about three-fourths baked.

The end by which a hair grows to the head is called the head of the hair; and the other, with which they begin to give the buckle, the point. Formerly the peruke-makers made no difference between the ends, but curled and wove them by either indifferently: but this made them unable to give a fine buckle; hair woven by the point never taking a right curl. Foreigners own themselves obliged to the English for this discovery, which was first carried abroad by a peruke-maker of our country.

Hair is also used in various other arts and manufactures.—In particular, the hair of beavers, hares, conies, &c., is the principal matter whereof hats are made. Spread on the ground, and left to putrefy on corn-lands, hair, as all other animal substances, viz. horns, hoofs, blood, garbage, &c., proves good manure.

Farriery, is generally called the coat; and, with regard to horses, deserves particular consideration. The hair growing on the fetlock serves as a defence to the prominent part of it in travelling in stony ways or in frosty weather. If the hair of a horse's neck, and the parts most uncovered, be close, smooth, and sleek, it is an indication of his being in health and good case. In order to make the hair of a horse soft and sleek, he must be kept warm at heart, for the least inward cold will cause the hair to flare; also sweat him often, for that will loosen and raise the dust and filth that renders his coat foul; and when he is in the heat of a sweat, scrape off all the white foam, sweat, and filth, that is raised up with an old sword blade; and also when he is blooded, if you rub him all over with his own blood, repeating it two or three days, and curry and dress him well, it will make his coat shine as if covered with a fine varnish.

Hair falling from the mane or tail is caused either by his having taken some heat, which has engendered a dry mange; or from some surfeit, which causes the evil humours to resort to those parts. To cure this, anoint the horse's mane and crest with black soap; make a strong ley of ashes, and wash it all over with it. But if a canker should grow on a horse's tail, which will eat away both flesh and bone, then put some oil of vitriol to it, and it will consume it; and if you find that the vitriol corrodes too much, you need only wet it with cold water, and it will put a stop to it.

If you would take away hair from any part of a horse's body, boil half a pound of lime in a quart of water, till a fourth part is consumed, to which add an ounce of orpiment; make this into a plaster, and lay it on.

Down, of plants; a general term expressive of all the hairy and glandular appearances on the surface of plants, to which they are supposed by naturalists to serve the double purpose of defensive weapons and vessels of secretion.

These hairs are minute threads of greater or less length and solidity; some of them visible to the naked eye, whilst others are rendered visible only by the help of glasses. Examined by a microscope, almost all the parts of plants, particularly the young stalks or stems, appear covered with hairs.

Hairs on the surface of plants present themselves under various forms; in the leguminous plants, they are generally cylindric; in the mallow tribe, terminated in a point; in agrimony, shaped like a fish hook; in nettle, awl-shaped and jointed; and in some compound flowers with hollow or funnel-shaped florets, they are terminated in two crooked points.

Probable as some experiments have rendered it, that the hairs on the surface of plants contribute to some organic secretion, their principal use seems to be to preserve the parts in which they are lodged from the bad effects of violent frictions, from winds, from extremes of heat and cold, and such like external injuries.

M. Guettard, who established a botanical method from the form, situation, and other circumstances of the hairy and glandular appearances on the surface of plants, demonstrated, that these appearances are generally constant and uniform in all the plants of the same genus. The same uniformity seems to characterize all the different genera of the same natural order.

The different sorts of hairs which form the down upon the surface of plants were imperfectly distinguished by Grew in 1682, and by Malpighi in 1686. M. Guettard just mentioned was the first who examined the subject both as a botanist and a philosopher. His observations were published in 1747.

Hair-Cloths, in military affairs, are large pieces of cloth made with half hair. They are used for covering the powder in wagons, or upon batteries; as also for covering charged bombs or hand-grenades, and many other uses in magazines.

Hair-Powder. See Starch.