1880.] on Fashion in Deformity, 391 



which is based upon the part of tlie body affected by tbem, and I will 

 begin with the more superficial and comparatively trivial — the treat- 

 ment of the hair and other ai>pendages of the skin. 



Here we are at once introduced to the domain of fashion in her 

 most potent sway. The facility with which hair lends itself to various 

 methods of treatment has been a temptation too great to resist in all 

 known conditions of civilization. Innumerable variations of custom 

 exist in different j^arts of the world, and marked changes in at least 

 all more or less civilized communities have characterized successive 

 epochs of history. Not only the length and method of arrangement, 

 but even the colour of the hair, is changed in obedience to caprices of 

 fashion. In many of the islands of the Western Pacific, the naturally 

 jet-black hair of the natives is converted into a tawny brown by the 

 application of lime, obtained by burning the coral found so abundantly 

 on their shores; and not many years since similar means were 

 employed for producing the same result among the ladies of Western 

 Europe — a fact which considerably diminishes the value of an idea 

 entertained by many ethnologists, that community of custom is 

 evidence of community of origin or of race. 



Notwithstanding the painful and laborious nature of the process, 

 when conducted with no better implements than flint knives, or pieces 

 of splintered bone or shell, the custom of keeping the head closely 

 shaved prevails extensively among savage nations. This, doubtless, 

 tends to cleanliness, and perhaps comfort, in hot countries ; but the 

 fact that it is in many tribes practised enly by the women and 

 children, shows that these considerations are not those primarily 

 engaged in its perpetuation. In some cases, as among the Fijians, 

 while the heads of the women are commonly cropped or closely 

 shaved, the men cultivate, at great expense of time and attention, a 

 luxuriant and elaborately arranged mass of hair, exactly reversing the 

 conditions met with in the most highly civilized nations. 



In some regions of Africa it is considered necessary to female 

 beauty carefully to eradicate the eyebrows, special pincers for the 

 puri^ose forming part of the appliances of the toilette; while the 

 various methods of shaving and cutting the beard among men of all 

 nations are too well known to require more than a jiassing notice. 

 The treatment of finger nails, both as to colour and form, has also 

 been subject to fashion ; but the practical inconveniences attending 

 the inordinate length to which thes^e are permitted to grow in some 

 parts of the east of Asia, appears to have restricted the custom to a 

 few localities. 



If time allowed, the exceedingly wide-sjiread custom of tattooing 

 the skin might be here considered, as a result of the same propensity 

 as that which produces the other more serious deformations, now to 

 be spoken of; but it will be as well to pass at once to these. 



The nose, the lips, and the ears have in almost all races offered 

 great temjitations to be used as foundations for the display of orna- 

 ment, some process of boring, cutting, or alteration of form being 



