BALBOA 548 



excess. It was then believed that no country 

 was prosperous unless it received in cash more 

 than it paid to other countries. 



If the buying and selling of commodities 

 were the only factors in creating a balance of 

 trade, this doctrine would be sound. But as 

 Adam Smith pointed out in 1776, money is 

 merely a commodity which obeys the same 

 laws of supply and demand as do dry goods, 

 for instance. There are, moreover, transporta- 

 tion and commission charges, citizens' invest- 

 ments abroad, and local investments by for- 

 eigners, and other factors which should be 

 included in a true balance of trade. As these 

 factors cannot be accurately measured, the 

 theory is no longer accepted by the majority 

 of economists. 



The balance of trade is still, however, a pop- 

 ular though inaccurate index of a country's 

 prosperity. Campaign orators make it an issue 

 without understanding, sometimes, what it 

 means. A new country, such as Canada or the 

 United States, usually shows a favorable bal- 

 ance of trade; its exports are larger than im- 

 ports, and money comes in freely. As a matter 

 of fact, the balance is really often unfavorable, 

 for much of the money is coming for invest- 

 ment and is balanced by bonds and other evi- 

 dences of debt which do not appear in the 

 trade balance. W.F.Z. 



BALBOA, balbo'a, VASCO NUNEZ DE (1475- 

 1517), the first European who looked upon the 

 waters of the Pacific Ocean from America's 

 shores. Having dissipated his fortune in Spain, 

 he sailed to America and was at Darien in 1510. 

 An insurrection placed him at the head of the 

 colony, and he immediately began a search 

 for a great western ocean of which the Indians 

 had told him, upon whose shores there was sup- 

 posed to lie the famous land of gold. On 

 Sept. 25, 1513, having reached the top of the 

 mountains, he saw for the first time the Pacific, 

 and five days later he stood upon the shore 

 and claimed the new-found water and all the 

 lands whose shores it washed, in the name of 

 the king of Spain. He little realized the vast- 

 ness of that domain. 



Returning to Darien, he found himself sup- 

 planted by a new governor, and anger and 

 jealousy at once arose on both sides. Balboa 

 submitted, and Davila, the new governor, ap- 

 parently became reconciled to him, but shortly 

 afterward had him beheaded on a charge of 

 intent to rebel. A great statue of Balboa 

 graced the Panama-Pacific Exposition grounds 

 at San Francisco in 1915. 



BALDNESS 



BALDER, bawl' der, in Norse mythology the 

 god who personified the sun and the charm of 

 summer. He was the son of Odin and Frigga, 

 and was a general favorite with the gods and 

 goddesses because of his beauty and goodness. 

 His one enemy was the wicked Loki, who hated 

 him and plotted his destruction. Balder's 

 mother, fearing that he might be harmed, had 

 exacted from all the things, in the world, save 

 only a small spray of mistletoe that grew on 

 an oak tree, a promise that they would not 

 injure her son. The gods, therefore, made a 

 pastime of hurling their dangerous weapons 

 at Balder, that they might enjoy the sport of 

 seeing them fall harmlessly to the ground. But 

 the scheming Loki made a dart from the mistle- 

 toe, and this he put into the hand of Balder's 

 blind brother, telling him how to throw it. 

 As the dart struck Balder he fell dead. The 

 death and funeral of the god, and his journey 

 to the underworld, form the theme of a beauti- 

 ful poem by Matthew Arnold, entitled Balder 

 Dead. See ODIN. 



BALDNESS, complete or partial loss of the 

 hair, resulting from various causes. It most 

 frequently accompanies the physical changes 

 due to old age; however, many instances of 

 baldness are observed among men in the prime 

 of life. Some such cases may be due to inher- 

 ited tendency, but generally they are the result 

 of severe illness or certain forms of skin dis- 

 eases. The wearing of close fitting, unventi- 

 lated hats or caps, and the use of too much 

 alkaline shampoo are said to cause baldness. 

 But in all cases the leading cause is that the 

 hair fails to receive proper food, as a result of 

 poor circulation of blood in the scalp. 

 \ The most effective treatment for preventing 

 loss of hair consists in daily massage with the 

 fingers or a brush for the purpose of increasing 

 the circulation. Practically all advertised 



- remedies which claim to grow hair on a bald 

 scalp are worthless. If the sources of growth, 

 the root and its nourishing vessels, are dead, 

 no remedy can be of the slightest effect. Where 

 loss of hair results from extreme dryness or 

 scurfiness, an oil or vaseline that will clear 



. away the scurf should be used. For old-age 

 baldness there is never a cure. 



*. Women are much less liable to baldness than 

 are men. The probable explanation of this 

 lies in the fact that they take better care of 

 their hair and especially that they massage the 

 scalp more frequently and do not destroy the 

 natural oil of the scalp by using too much 

 strong alkaline shampoo. Women wear their 



