416 HISTORY OF 



which becomes bald the soonest, as well as that 

 part which lies immediately above the temples. 

 The hair under the temples, and at the back of 

 the head, is very seldom known to fail, " and 

 women aref much less apt to become bald than 

 men. M. Buffon seems to think they never be- 

 come bald at all ; but we have too many instances 

 of the contrary among us, not to contradict very 

 easily the assertion. Of all parts or appendages 

 of the body, the hair is that which is found most 

 different in different climates and often not only 

 contributes to mark the country, but also the dis- 

 position of the man. It is, in general, thickest 

 where the constitution is strongest; and more 

 glossy and beautiful where the health is most 

 permanent. The ancients held the hair to be a 

 sort of excrement, produced like the nails ; the 

 part next the root pushing out that immediately 

 contiguous. But the moderns have found that 

 every hair may be truly said to live, to receive 

 nutriment, to fill and distend itself like the other 

 parts of the body. The roots, they observe, do 

 not turn grey sooner than the extremities, but 

 the whole hair changes colour at once ; and we 

 have many instances of persons who have grown 

 grey in one night's time.* Each hair, if viewed 

 with a microscope, is found to consist of five or 

 six lesser ones, all wrapped up in one common 

 covering ; it appears knotted, like some sorts of 

 grass, and sends forth branches at the joints. It 

 is bulbous at the root, by which it imbibes its 



* M. Buffon says that the hair begins to grow grey at the points, but tli* 

 fact is otherwise. 



