134 ARISTOTLE S ANHOMGEOMERIA 



is true particularly of patients suffering from scarlet and 

 other fevers. 



Many other statements relating to the hair are made by 

 Aristotle, of which the following seem to be the most 

 interesting: In H. A. hi. c. 10, s. 9, he says that the hair 

 grows on dead bodies. Many descriptions of a remarkable 

 growth of hair after death have been given since Aristotle s 

 time, and many people believe that such growth takes 

 place.* However, Dr. W. J. Erasmus Wilson says : &quot; The 

 lengthening of the hairs of the beard, observed in a dead 

 person, is merely the result of the contraction of the skin 

 towards their bulb.&quot;t 



In a passage which is not clear, Aristotle says that, in 

 animals with spotted fur, the spots first appear in the fur 

 and skin and in the skin of the tongue. I I know nothing 

 about such an occurrence of spots on the tongue, but some 

 dogs have dark patches or marks on the palate and other 

 parts within the mouth, and the following record seems to 

 show that there is a relation between the colour of the hair 

 and these marks. Mr. Woodward, a gamekeeper on the 

 Blenheim estate, Woodstock, informs me that about nine 

 years ago a pedigree black retriever, belonging to the Duke 

 of Graf ton, had seven pups, six black and one pure white. 

 The black pups had, like their mother, dark or black palates, 

 but the white pup had its palate partly white. 



In the case of Dalmatian pups, which are usually white 

 at birth, the spots do not appear until the pups are a few 

 weeks old. 



There are several passages, in ancient works, about an 

 influence exercised on the colours of animals by the water 

 drunk by the mothers of these animals or by the animals 

 themselves. Strabo mentions rivers the waters of which 

 had an influence of this kind, and so also does ^Elian,|| 

 and there is also the well-known passage in Genesis, c. 30, 

 vv. 37-39, which has so often been discussed. Aristotle 

 says that there are waters of this kind in many places, and, 

 by drinking them just before conception, sheep bring forth 

 black lambs, e.g., the so-called Cold River, in the Thracian 



* I particularly remember a detailed narrative about au excessive 

 growth of hair after death in connection with a case of exhumation in 

 Worcestershire. 



f Healthy Skin, Sc., 8th edition, 1876, p. 112. 



| H. A. i ii. c. 10, s. 9. Geogr. x. c. .1, s. 14. 



I! De Nat. Anim. viii. 21, 



