276 THE HUMAN SKIN. 



come forth perforce around it. Feature or intellectual form, active 

 fitness, and close continence, severally representing mind, motion 

 and body, are thus the three spirits of the skin, according to the 

 three regions; and these are the cornucopia of its uses. 



We have said but little upon one important appendage of the 

 skin, namely, the hair, which is of a threefold kind, and is universal 

 over the body. There is the massive growth upon the scalp, the 

 short hairs met with in other parts, and the invisible down, which 

 appears to exist everywhere. We can only remark that its uses 

 throughout are typified in those of the hair on the head. Warmth, 

 clothing, conduction, protection, expression, beauty — every hair 

 means them all. It is also observable that there is an intimate con- 

 nection between the hair and the temperament, and between the hair 

 and the nervous system, and a sympathy between the hair and the 

 mind in health and disease. The narratives of fear turning the hair 

 white in a single night, are so well attested, that a late clever writer on 

 the subject has nothing to object beyond the " of course it is impos- 

 sible" of his own education. Certain it is that the hair is a part of 

 the man, and in a broad sense comes from his very nerves. In the 

 face of anatomical limits, and heedless of learned giggling, whoever 

 has once felt the hair of his flesh stand up, knows right well that 

 something ran out of his brains when the fright was on his back. 

 Let the anatomist make a scalpel out of that fact, and carve away 

 with it at the hair follicle, and he will soon find that every hair 

 carries a streamlet of his life. 



The hair presents an elongation of the qualities of the cuticle, 

 and analyzed by the wearer, we see in it the same round world 

 again as in the most living organs. The moss and grass of our 

 skulls is just like us. The head is nature's king, and nature crowns 

 it. The essence passes into the crown, and it represents the royalty 

 of the wearer. The manly forelocks rise with independence and 

 openness, equally with the forehead that they overshadow. The 

 clustered curls of the woman catch and benet with the same witch- 

 ery that glitters from her eyes, or fascinates in her smile. Yea, 

 every state and feeling makes as free with the hair as fear itself. 

 Low-browed self abasement has a straight-haired head; its very 

 comb puts it down by instinctive logic of correspondences. Courage 



