;iu 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



develops sometimes to an almost disfig- 

 uring degree. I have seen in some male 

 patients the ordinarily fine hairs over 

 the body, arms, and legs develop into a 

 hairy coat over nearly the whole body, 

 quite comparable with that of the lower 

 animals. 



My problem was: How much does 

 each hair of the beard grow every twen- 

 ty-four hours ; how many new cells are 

 thus produced in each hair ; and finally, 

 what is approximately the total number 

 of new cells produced in the beard each 

 day? 



Eecently I collected the fragments of 

 hair which I had shaved from my face 

 and asked Professor AUer G. Ellis, 

 of the Jefferson Medical College, to 

 measure them and if possible give 

 me an estimate of the number of 

 cells per hair which must have grown 

 on my face in twenty-four hours. He 

 found that each hair had grown about 

 one millimeter (^5 of an inch) in 

 the twenty-four hours, and that the 

 number of cells in that length of one 

 hair would be about 10,835. This 

 would indicate a growth of more than 

 450 cells every hour, day in and day 

 out. This, remember, is for the new 

 growth of only one of the hairs shaved 

 off. If now we accept 5000 as the num- 

 ber of hairs on the face alone, that 

 would mean 14,175,000 new cells had 

 grown every twenty-four hours, or 

 nearly 600,000 cells every hour, or 

 10,000 cells every minute in the beard 

 alone. Cut the figures in half if you 

 wish. The fact is just as marvelous. 



If we broaden the calculation to the 

 hair all over the body, growing on the 

 head at probably a somewhat slower 

 rate and still more slowly all over the 

 rest of the body, we would have a world 

 of billions upon billions of hair cells, as 

 of blood cells, produced every day. 



The same enormous activity is seen 

 in the destruction and restoration of 

 the cells in many glands such as those 

 that secrete the saliva which flows so 

 abundantlv when we chew our food : in 



the glands of the stomach, for its share 

 in the digestive processes ; in the glands 

 lining the entire twenty-five feet of the 

 intestine, producing the intestinal juice 

 (succus entericus) so important in di- 

 gestion. To these are to be added the 

 enormous activity of the accessory or- 

 gans of digestion, such as the liver, 

 which secretes about twenty-five ounces 

 (about IY2 pints) of bile every day, 

 and the pancreas, which pours out a 

 large quantity of pancreatic juice to 

 aid in digestion. To these must again 

 be added the activity of the kidneys 

 and of the millions of sweat glands. 

 These two — the kidneys and the sweat 

 glands — curiously enough are much 

 alike. The skin might be called a kid- 

 ney unrolled and spread out over the 

 surface of the body, and conversely, the 

 kidneys two portions of rolled-up skin 

 placed within the atrdDmen. 



In emergencies the skin may actually 

 perform the function of the kidney. 

 When I was a medical student— in the 

 long, long ago, now verging upon sixty 

 years ! — I had in my own person a 

 striking example of this "vicarious" 

 action of the skin when my kidneys 

 "struck work." I was very ill with a vio- 

 lent tonsillitis and a high fever — how 

 high I do not know, for it was before 

 the days of the clinical thermome- 

 ter ( ! ) , but I should judge that it must 

 have been 104° to 105° F. Lying in bed, 

 I perceived a most disagreeable urinary 

 odor. I first thought it was due to the 

 neglect of the maid. But this proved 

 not to be the case. I soon observed 

 whenever I brought my hands near 

 to my face as in taking a drink of 

 water or using my pocket handkerchief 

 that a whiff of this disagreeable odor 

 was pronounced. Then I deliberately 

 investigated the condition of my skin 

 and found that it was doing nearly all 

 the work of the kidneys — a most dan- 

 gerous condition, which might easily be 

 followed by uremic coma and speedy 

 death. Prof. J. M. Da Costa, who was 

 attending me, at once took the most 



