110 TIUCIIOLOGIA MAMMALIUM; 



than the hair. In the last one the epidermis has the appearance of tanned leather, partly 

 decayed. 



We have a lock of hair, taken from the head of an infant who was buried twenty-one 

 years, which is in a tolerable state of preservation, while the skin is entirely decayed. 

 We might as well also notice again, the instances of hair found in the stomach of Rumi- 

 nants, and expelled from the uterus, which, except that the button is decayed or not to be 

 found, is not very much injured. 



We have some hair from the head of a lady, that was in the grave thirty-two years. 

 It has lost its ductility, elasticity and tenacity. 



OF THE TRANSPLANTING OF HAIR. Dieffenbach* and Weismanf assert that a hair 

 may be drawn out of one place and transplanted in another. Muller admits the possibility 

 but denies the probability of this statement. (See Eletn. Phys., 119.) 



OF THE EFFECT OF DISEASES OF THE BODY UPON HAIR. For much information upon 

 this head, see Rayer and Wilson upon Diseases of the Skin. See also Traite des Maladie du 

 Cuir Chevelu par Cazenave, 1850. Dr. Green, (in Diseases of the Skin, p. 286,) says that 

 the secreting bulbs (follicles) of the hair, are secondarily or primarily affected in 

 several diseases; that exanthematousj fevers are particularly apt to cause a temporary 

 suspension of their functions, so that the hair is generally shed on the return of con- 

 valescence. In some instances (he adds) it amounts to a complete annihilation of their 

 office, when permanent baldness is the consequence. 



In such cases we siippose that the follicle is destroyed. It has been remarked that the 

 wool of sickly or murrain sheep is finer, though it has less tenacity and possesses no lustre. 

 And Mr. Luccock (speaking of the wool of old sheep which had lost their yolk) says 

 that it " dies in the bowl," i. e. that it sinks in the water in which it is washed. 



OF DISEASES OF PILE. Bichat was of opinion that the exterior envelope of the hair 

 (the cortex) is lifeless and insensible, and that therefore it cannot be the seat of any 

 disease, either acute or chronic; from which he leaped to the conclusion that grey (color- 

 less) hair, cannot be the subject of disease. (See Anat. Genl., 2 v., p. 786.) But when 

 Bichaf wrote this passage, it was supposed that a hair was composed of a cortex and 

 medula (coloring matter) only. 



OF PLICA POLONICA. A monstrous deal has been written upon this disease; never- 

 theless, there are some authors who doubt its existence. It is said that hair, under its 

 influence, is enlarged in bulk, and that a passage is formed for red blood, which exudes, 



* Norm, do Regen. et transplan., Wurzbourg, 1832. 

 t De eolitum partium, Leipzick, 1824, p. 33. 

 J From exanthemela, eruption. 



\ From pJico, to knit, and Polonica, of Poland, "the Polish knit," because the disease was thought to be peculiar to 

 Poland, and that it caused the hair to knit or cntanyle. 



