Retention and Loss of Hair. 40*7 



The Retention and the Loss of the Hair 

 from a Physiological Standpoint. 



By T. Wesley Mills, M.A., M.D. 

 Professor of Physiology, McGill University. 



In the Popular Science Monthly for October last, Mr. 

 Eaton, in a paper entitled " A Bald and Toothless Future," 

 states that as a result of years of observation of public 

 assemblages of people, he is forced to conclude that there is, 

 among men, relatively to women, a very disproportionate 

 amount of baldness ; that there may be deficiency of the 

 hair of the head in the male sex to the extent of forty-six 

 -per cent. ; and that it is more marked the higher the aver- 

 age culture of the assembly examined. This writer attrib- 

 utes the growing tendency to loss of hair prematurely to 

 wearing tightly-fitting hair coverings, livimg within doors, 

 and keeping the hair closely cropped. The condition is 

 exaggerated by the influence of heredity. Mr. Eaton says : — 

 " There is no reason why bald heads should not yield to the 

 laws of heredity as much as curly heads or red heads." He 

 further thinks that the early failure of the teeth has an 

 analogous explanation with the loss of hair, viz. : decay 

 from lack of use. The changes of conditions affected by 

 modern civilization have rendered both comparatively use- 

 less to man. 



Mr. G-ouinlock, in the same magazine for May of the cur- 

 rent year, under the title, " Hats as a Cause for Baldness," 

 while agreeing that we are drifting towards that future 

 indicated by Mr. Eaton, takes much narrower ground, and 

 even combats several of the latter's conclusions. He be- 

 lieves that the common form of baldness is due entirely 

 to the high hat and the hard felt hat that constrict the 

 blood-vessels which nourish the hair bulbs. He also refers 

 to the peculiar circumstances under which the blood-vessels 

 of the head are distributed, so that they are especially ex- 

 posed to pressure; and to a certain extent he reasons cor- 

 rectly, and, it may be added, zealously, to establish his 

 thesis ; but as I shall have occasion to show, his reasoning 



