554 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



being otherwise injurious), he applied this salt for the pur- 

 pose of removing the freckles. The compound consists of 

 two parts of sulpho-carbolate of zinc, twenty-five parts of 

 distilled glycerine, twenty-five parts of rose-water, and five 

 parts of scented alcohol, and is to be applied twice daily for 

 from half an hour to an hour, then washed off with cold wa- 

 ter. Protection against the sun by veiling and other means 

 is recommended, and, in addition, for persons of pale com- 

 plexion, some mild preparation of iron. 8 (7, 1871, 90. 



PINCUS ON HAIR DISEASE. 



Dr. Pincus, of Germany, has just published the results of 

 ten years' observation upon the rise and progress of the chron- 

 ic diseases of the human hair. Among other conclusions, he 

 informs us that, in most cases, all these diseases begin with a 

 shortening of the typical length of the hair, this generally 

 taking place in such a manner that in each single cluster of 

 hairs (hair circle, as he calls it), whenever one hair is attacked 

 by the disease the other hairs in the group follow at a great- 

 er or less interval. If the hair first attacked is shortened to 

 the amount of one half its original length, a thinning of the 

 hair immediately follows. In single cases, especially at the 

 beginning of an attack of sickness shortly after puberty, both 

 a shortening and thinning of the hair may occur simultane- 

 ously. This period of the course of the disease, in which the 

 hair only fails in typical length, Dr. Pincus calls the first 

 stage of chronic hair sickness. The first stage has hitherto 

 remained completely unnoticed, and disease of the hair has 

 only been appreciated when a considerable falling out or a 

 reduction in the diameter of a portion of the hair has taken 

 place. 



In the treatment of chronic diseases of the hair, examina- 

 tion of the daily loss furnishes the most important means of 

 determining whether the evil is increasing or diminishing. 

 Without this guide it is difficult to appreciate the changes, 

 excepting at intervals of three months, while the daily fall of 

 hair furnishes an. indication from week to week. 



According to our author, the principal constants, from the 

 practical examination of which satisfactory deductions can 

 be made of the rise and progress of chronic disease of the 

 hair, are, first, the daily falling out, especially the number of 



