170 Hair in its Microscopical and Medico-Legal Aspects. 



section is then oval instead of round. The beard is generally 

 triangular on transverse section, with one convex side ; the hair 

 from the genitals is generally oval, sometimes triangular. Hair 

 which has been exposed to the action of the sweat is sometimes 

 swollen in one part, and so changed in form. 



When the hair grows undisturbed it ends always in a fine point. 

 All the hair of a new-born child, hair which grows at the age of 

 puberty, and such as has grown naturally without interference, 

 always has a pointed end, which may be of use in deciding in 

 regard to the age of a person. Later this normal ending is not 

 found. Hair which has been cut has at first a sharply-defined 

 transverse section ; later the edges are rounded off, and the end 

 becomes round and diminished in size, or is frayed out. This may 

 lead to an approximate calculation of the time which has elapsed 

 since the hair was last cut. The beard, being less frequently cut, 

 is more often split and frayed out. The hair from the female 

 head, generally not cut, ends regularly in two to three points, 

 often in more, each having the end frayed out. 



The shape taken by the ends of the hair depends upon the 

 action of friction and sweat, the former splitting and rubbing off 

 the ends, the latter macerating and acting chemically by dissolving 

 or softening the connective substance. The shaft of the hair is 

 acted upon by the same agents and changed; especially active is 

 the sweat, changing the colour, as is seen in the axilla, on the 

 scrotum, and the labia. 



From the form of the hair, especially of its end, we can draw 

 conclusions as to the nature of the influence to which it has been 

 exposed, and by means of this and its other peculiarities we may 

 be able in medico-legal cases, with more or less certainty, to decide 

 from what part of the body it came. But no form of hair is 

 absolutely characteristic of any portion of the body. — Translated 

 by S. Gr. Weber in the New York Medical Journal. 



