HAIR. 



derived therefrom, or reciprocated there- 

 with. It is rather of the nature of vege- 

 tation. They grow as plants do out of the 

 earth ; or, as some plants shoot from the 

 parts of others, from which, though they 

 draw their nourishment, yet each has, as 

 it were, its several life, and a distinct eco- 

 nomy. They derive their food from some 

 juices in the body, but not from the nu- 

 tritious juices ; whence they may live 

 though the body be starved. 



The hairs ordinarily appear round or 

 cylindrical; but the microscope also dis- 

 covers triangular or square ones, which 

 diversity of figure arises from that of the 

 pores, to which the hairs always accom- 

 modate themselves. Their length depends 

 on the quantity of the proper humour to 

 feed them, and their colour on the qua- 

 lity of that humour : whence, at different 

 stages of life, the colour usually differs. 

 Their extremities split into two or three 

 branches, especially when kept dry, or 

 suffered to grow too long; so that what 

 appears only a single hair to the naked 

 eye, seems a brush to the microscope. 

 The hair of a mouse, viewed by Mr. Der- 

 ham with a microscope, seemed to be one 

 single transparent tube, with a pith made 

 up of fibrous substances> running in dark 

 lines, in some hairs transversely, in others 

 spirally. The darker medullary parts or 

 lines, he observes, were no other than 

 small fibres convolved round, and lying 

 closer together than in the other parts of 

 the hair ; they run from the bottom to 

 the top of the hair, and, he imagines, 

 may serve to make a gentle evacuation of 

 some humour out of the body : hence, 

 the hair of hairy animals, this author sug- 

 gests, may not only serve as a fence 

 against cold, &c. but as an organ of insen- 

 sible perspiration. Hair makes a very 

 considerable article in bommeree, espe- 

 cially since the mode of perukes has ob- 

 tained. The hair of the growth of the 

 northern countries, as England, &c. is va- 

 lued much beyond that of the more south- 

 ern ones, as Italy, Spain, the south parts 

 of France, &c. The merit of good hair con- 

 sists in its being well fed, and neither too 

 coarse nor too slender; the bigness ren- 

 dering it less susceptible of the artificial 

 curl, and disposing it rather to frizzle, and 

 the smallness making its curl of too short 

 duration. Its length should be about 

 twenty -five inches; the more it falls short 

 of this, the less value it bears. 



The scarceness of grey and white hair 

 has put the dealers in that commodity up- 

 en the methods of reducing other colours 

 to these. This is done by spreading the 

 hajr to bleach on the grass like linen, after 



first washing it out in a bteaching water: 

 this ley, with the force of the sun and air, 

 brings the hair to so perfect a whiteness, 

 that the most experienced person may be 

 deceived therein, there being scarce any 

 way of detecting the artifice, but by boil- 

 ing and drying it, which leaves the hair 

 of the colour of a dead walnut-tree leaf. 

 Hair, like wool, may be dyed of any co- 

 lour. 



Hair, which doej* not curl or buckle na- 

 turally, is brought to it by art, by first 

 boiling, and thert baking it, in the follow- 

 ing manner : after having picked and 

 sorted the hair, and disposed it in parcels 

 according to lengths, they roll them up, 

 and tie them tight down upon little cylin- 

 drical instruments, either of wood or 

 earthen ware, a quarter of an inch thick, 

 and hollowed a little in the middle, call- 

 ed pipes ; in which state they are put in 

 a pot over the fire, there to boil for about 

 two hours. When taken out, they let 

 them dry; and when dried, they spread 

 them on a sheet of brown paper, cover 

 them with another, and thus send them to 

 the pastry-cook, who making a crust or 

 coffin around them, of common paste, 

 sets them in an oven till the crust is about 

 three-fourths baked. The end by which a 

 hair grows to the head is called the head 

 of the hair; and the other, with which 

 they begin to give the buckle, the point. 

 Formerly, the peruke-makers made no 

 difference between the ends, but curled 

 and wove them by either indifferently j 

 but this made them unable to give a fine 

 buckle, hair woven by the point neVer 

 taking a right curl. 



Hair is also used in various other arts 

 and manufactures: in particular the hair 

 of beavers, hares, conies, &c. is the prin- 

 cipal matter whereof hats are made. 

 Spread on the ground, and left to putrefy 

 on corn-lands, hair, as all other animal 

 substances, viz. horns, hoofs, blood, &c. 

 proves good manure. 



This, like every part of the animal sys- 

 tem, has been chemically analysed, and 

 has been found to contain a large portion 

 of gelatine, which may be separated from 

 it by boiling. It then becomes brittle, the 

 gelatine being the principal cause of its 

 suppleness and toughness. From some 

 experiments by Mr. Hatchett, it is infer- 

 red, that the hair which loses its curl in 

 moist weather, and which is softest and 

 most flexible, is that which yields its ge- 

 latine most readily ; whereas strong and 

 elastic hair yields it with the greatest 

 difficulty, and in the smallest proportion. 

 By an experiment of Berthollet's 1,152 

 parts of hair yielded 



