OR, A TREATISE ON PILE. 35 



the shaft of hair being fractured from friction. Fig. 36 represents the hair of the eye- 

 brow of an oval-haired person, fractured in the shaft so much, that some of the interme- 

 diate fibres are obtruding. The places to study the apex of hair is among the unshorn 

 locks of the foetus, or of young children, whose hair has never been cut; or the young 

 hairs of adults, which are continually produced to supply the places of those that are 

 continually falling out. In all these cases we find the apex more or less pointed. 



Of the pile of the lower animals, the apex of some are pointed; as, for instance, the 

 Mouse, the Ground-Squirrel, the Mole, the Jumping-Mouse, of Canada, the Muskrat, and 

 many others; while the anterior extremity of the hair of the Goat, the Lama, &c., &c., 

 are more abrupt. 



M. Mandl is of opinion, that "with individuals who have had their hair recently cut, 

 each hair preserves its diameter to its free end, [anterior extremity,] which presents a 

 truncated extremity, where the eye may determine this distinction; but that if those same 

 hairs are examined, after a long interval, each hair is found to be terminated by a pointed 

 extremity, more or less long." M. Mandl considers this change to be the result of a vital 

 process. (See Comptes rend us, 1845.) We believe that this learned gentleman has 

 mistaken for renewed points on old hairs, the natural and original points of new hairs, 

 which succeed those that fall out, during the "long interval," to which he has alluded. 



OF DlCHOPHY,* AND GROWING DOUBLE OF HAIRS AND FURCATED PlLE. Hairs furcated, 



or their fibres divided at the superior extremity, are not uncommon. 



Fig. 37 a represents a hair' of the head of a young lady of North Carolina, kindly 

 presented to us by her physician, as a great curiosity. She is reported to be in health, 

 yet nearly every filament of her hair is furcated. The hairs of the lock sent us, do not 

 exceed five inches in length. 



We have examined the hair of the head of a young married lady, of this city, who is 

 supposed to be laboring under pulmonary consumption, and found nearly one-fourth of the 

 filaments furcated. We have also examined the hair of her father, mother, and two of her 

 children, none of which are furcated. 



Fig. 37 b represents the wool of Congo Billy, a pure negro, and will be seen to be 

 furcated. 



Figs. 38 a and 38 b represent two hairs of a full-blooded male Choctaw Indian; the 

 specimen presented by Dr. J. O. Nott, of Mobile. The hairs are sixteen inches long, and 

 they are, respectively, tri-furcated and quadra-furcated. 



Sometimes the fibres of a hair are so much divided, at the superior termination, as to 

 resemble a brush. (See fig. 39.) 



Furcated hairs are found in the locks of the Chinese. In our collection of ancient hairs, 

 few are found that are furcated; only one in the hair of the head of a Mexican mummy, 

 and none in those of a Peruvian mummy. 



* Dichophy, from " dicha," double, and "phyo," to grow. 



