50 THICIIOLOGIA MAMMALIUM; 



slightest touch of the hair is often sufficient to cause violent pain, which seems to be in the 

 hair itself, but the sufferer, (who is very intelligent,) has no doubt of its being confined to 

 the scalp. 



OF VESSELS. In the course of our pile manipulations we have often encountered small 

 threads, which may be vessels or nerves, but which are too small to be identified under the 

 microscope ; some of these are attached to the posterior portion of the button, when drawn 

 out, and others upon the same part of the follicles, obtained by dissection or maceration. 



Figure 56 represents a hair of the oval-haired species, with a button somewhat deviating 

 from the normal shape, but with small portions of four threads disrupted in the drawing. 



Figure 24, which represents a hair of the pavilion of the external ear, shows threads. 

 So does figure 29, which represents a hair of the axillae. Figure 31, which represents the 

 hair of the forearm, exhibits a thread, (see "a.") The same may be said of figure 55, "e." 



Note. In the drawings of hairs, in Wilson's Human Physiology, it is represented that 

 each filament has two sebaceous glands opening by short ducts, one on each side thereof; 

 but we have not found them in place. 



From all which, we agree with Henle that common hairs, (by which term he excludes 

 the whiskers of the lower animals,) although insensible themselves, because they are desti- 

 tute of nerves, are in connection, through their roots, with a tissue rich in nerves and 

 sanguiferous vessels. (See Gen. Anat., v. 1., ch. iv., p. 300.*) 



As the hair subsists from vessels, so they are influenced by the vital force and health of 

 the individual ; so that when we see a head thickly covered with strong, richly colored, 

 lustrous hair, we may predict, that the person is in good health; but when the hair is 

 weak, sparse, dull shades of color and devoid of lustre, we may as surely pronounce, that 

 there exists some bodily infirmity, or that there is a diseased state of the system. 



OF THE SECRETION OF PILE. Admitting that there is no vitality in the shaft of a 

 common hair, still it may be an organ of secretion. The pile of a healthy person is almost 

 always annointed, as it were, with an oleagenous substance ; which is believed to be of 

 that character. In that dreadful disease, milk sickness, the hair sometimes drops out, and 

 in proof that the virus enters into the body of the filament, Bowyer assures us that it has 

 been detected in hair and wool, ajter they have been cleansed, in the usual manner, and 

 have been woven into cloth. Prof. John K. Mitchell, M. D., is of opinion that this class of 

 diseases is caused by poisonous fungi, one variety of which resides inside of the follicle, 

 between its walls and the button, and that it ascends to the epidermis. (See Mitchell on 

 Fevers, p. 65 to 67.) And Mr. Youatt says that what is termed the yolk of sheep's wool, 

 is a secretion. 



* See Youatt in Essay on Sheep, Lib. of Usf. Know. 



