PER 



called sweat, and which is accidental, 

 there is, moreover, one that is insensible, 

 acting 1 more or less ut every instant, and 

 which none could conceive to be so abun- 

 dant as it is, before the experiments of 

 Sanctorius. This celebrated philosopher 

 had the resolution to pass a part of his 

 life in a balance, whei'ein he weighed 

 himself, in order to determine the loss oc- 

 casioned by the effects of the insensible 

 perspiration, lie has found that this kind 

 of evacuation causes vis to lose, in the 

 space of twenty-four hours, about five- 

 eighths of the nutriment which we have 

 taken. Dodard, in repeating afterwards 

 the same experimcms, has had regard to 

 the difFerence of age, and is convinced 

 that a person perspires much the most in 

 his youth. Hut. the philosophers who have 

 directed their attention to this object, 

 have not sufficiently distinguished the ef- 

 fect of the perspiration or transpiration 

 which is performed hy the lungs, and of 

 which the matter escapes by expiration, 

 from the effect which is attributable to 

 the cutaneous perspiration, or to that 

 which obtains through the intermediation 

 of the skin. Seguin has undertaken, in 

 conjunction with Lavoisier, to determine 

 these two effects separately ; and , after 

 having 1 sought, in the usual manner, the 

 total result of the transpiration, has sup- 

 pressed that which is performed by the 

 skin, by applying upon that organ a cover 

 impermeable to the humour which it 

 transmits outwardly : thus has been ob- 

 tained the quantity of the pulmonary 

 transpiration : and the mean between the 

 results of these experiments gives seven- 

 elevenths for the ratio between this quan- 

 tity and that of the cutaneous perspira- 

 tion ; that is, the effect produced by the 

 pulmonary transpiration is more than the 

 third of the total effect. 



PERUKE. It appears that this term 

 was originally applied to describe a fine 

 natural head of long hair ; but whatever 

 may have been the ancient use or mean- 

 ing of the word, it has now almost become 

 Obsolete, though it was for more than a 

 century in constant application to those 

 artificial heads of hair, made probably at 

 first to conceal natural or accidental 

 baldness, but which afterwards became so 

 ridiculously fashionable, as to be worn in 

 preference to the most beautiful locks, 

 absurdly shaved off the head to make 

 room for them. 



Ancient authors might be quoted to 

 prove that the great and luxurious of 

 that time had recourse to this mode of 

 concealing- defects, and of decorating the 



liead ; nay, it might perhaps be proved, 

 that the peruke of the Emperor Commo- 

 clus was more absurdly composed than 

 any modern peruke has ever been ; and 

 indeed it must, be admitted, that a wig 

 powdered with scrapings of gold, in ad- 

 dition to oils and glutinous perfumes, 

 must have made a more wonderful ap- 

 pearance than our immediate ancestors 

 ever witnessed. It was in the reign of 

 Charles the First, that perukes were in- 

 troduced throughout Euiope, when the 

 moralists attacked them without mercy, 

 as they perceived that the folly of youth 

 even extended to the cutting off nature's 

 locks, to be replaced by the hair of the 

 dead, and of horses, woven into a filthy- 

 piece of canvas. Admonition and ridi- 

 cule was, however, of little avail, and the 

 clergy began to be affected by the gene- 

 ra! ..iania. Those on the continent, being 

 almost universally Roman Catholics, were 

 so completely subject to their superiors, 

 that the peruke was soon routed from 

 their body ; but as the dignified clergy of 

 England conceive that their consequence 

 is increased by the enormous bushes 

 of hair upon their heads, and the judg- 

 es have adopted their sentiments in 

 this particular, it is probable many years 

 will elapse before the shape and absurdity 

 of two particular species of perukes are 

 forgotten. 



About the close of the seventeenth 

 century the peruke was made to repre- 

 sent the natural curl of the hair, but in 

 such profusion, that ten heads would not 

 have furnished an equal quantity, as it 

 flowed down the back, and hung over the 

 shoulders, half way down the arms. By 

 1721, it had become fashionable to tie 

 one half of it on the left side into a club. 

 Between 1730 and 1740, the bag-wig 

 came into fashion, and the peruke was 

 docked considerably, and sometime* 

 plaited behind into a queue, though even 

 till 1752 the long flowing locks maintain- 

 ed their influence. After 1770 those 

 were rarely seen ; and since that time 

 persons wearing perukes have generally 

 had substantial reasons for so doing from 

 baldness and complaints in the head. At 

 one time, indeed, when the stern virtues 

 of Brutus were much in vogue, the 

 young men of Europe wore perukes of 

 black or dark hair, dressed from his sta- 

 tues. Many particulars on this subject 

 have been preserved by Mr. Malcolm, in 

 his " Anecdotes of the Manners and Cus- 

 toms of London," from which we learn, 

 that a young country-woman obtained 

 60/. for her head of hair in the year 



