THE SKIN AND HAIR. 73 



Erasmus Wilson, who has no hesitation in giving credence to 

 the popular belief. 



Still, doubtless many of the instances of such change that 

 have found their way into history and narrative are otherwise 

 explicable. Thus, for example, history attests the sudden 

 change of Marie Antoinette's hair from black to gray after 

 her imprisonment. As to this, there now exists little doubt, 

 I believe, that the unfortunate queen's hair had become gray 

 before her imprisonment, but that she darkened it assiduously 

 by some sort of hair-dye. When imprisoned she could no 

 longer obtain this hair-dye : hence the natural gray colour of 

 her tresses became apparent. The same explanation awaits 

 the conspirator Orsini, who was executed at Paris some years 

 ago. When he went to the scaffold his hair and beard were 

 gray ; when he went into prison they were black. It is well 

 established that Orsini had been in the habit of using hair- 

 dyes. Were it not thus made out, his case, too, would be cited 

 amongst the instances corroborative of popular opinion. 



Though the hair be wholly devoid of feeling, it is not de- 

 void of life; it soon resents any discipline founded on the 

 treatment of it as mere dead filaments. It cannot be pinched 

 with hot irons, or crinkled in and out a waver, without caus- 

 ing speedy deterioration ; as many ladies have, when too late, 

 discovered to their cost. No style of hair-dressing is so con- 

 genial to its well-being as that of arranging it in plain bands. 

 Curling, in whatever w r ay conducted, is injurious ; curling by 

 hot irons most injurious of all. Far more prejudicial, how- 

 ever, are some of these crinkling and waving operations, which 

 unfortunately have become fashionable. They are only second 

 in evil to certain operations of dyeing, and, still worse, bleach- 

 ing, which will be noticed further on. English curls boucles 

 Anglaises have acquired a civilised -world -wide celebrity. 

 The former predilection of English ladies for ringlets is not to 

 be considered a matter of taste alone, this style of hair-dress- 

 ing being peculiarly appropriate to English hair and the 



