ANTHROPOLOGY. 



335 



According to Fritsch [1S99' 1 , 46] the curvature in the hair is already determined in the hair- 

 follicle (the same with the hairs of sheep; Lôbner [1S98, PI. 17, fig. A]), in the case of spiral hairs by 

 a sword-shaped root (see Deniker [1900, 34, fig. 3 B]). However, Maclay [i873 a , 2 3 2 ] stated, and my 

 own observations are similar, that Papuan hair which grows after shaving is straight for the first 1.5 m. m.. 

 With the Negritoes the spiral form (Pincus [1873, 155]) only begins (Schadenberg Le.) at a distance of 

 2 m.m. from the skin. It therefore appears very doubtful to me whether the spiral of the single hair and 

 the inclination to meet in numbers from 67 — 115 to form joint spirals, also the above mentioned turns, 

 are explained by the curvature of the root. 

 The hairs of one tress do not converge from 

 where they leave the skin towards the axis 

 of the tress, as indicated by Broca [1879, 

 107], but towards a point of the circumference 

 of the tress, which I take it, is always hollow ; 

 also the entire bend of a turning-point falls 

 outside the axis and lies pretty well in the 

 cylindrical, circumferential surface formed by 

 the spiral twists themselves. The direction 

 of the first spiral (next to the skin, after the 

 first 1.5 m.m.), is in ail samples but two 

 towards the right, and in thèse two towards 

 the left, as is the case with a cork-screw 

 (holding the point upwards). It is probable 

 that with the two latter I made the mistake 

 of cutting the tress off above the lowest 

 turning-point, and that the direction of the 

 first, basai spiral is always and invariably 

 towards the right. Assuming this to be true, 

 the direction of the topmost spiral should 

 also be to the right, as the Papuans of H.B. 

 and Lake Sentâni never eut off their hair at 

 a certain length, but only know the process 

 of shaving. However, no certainty could be 

 obtained regarding this, the tresses being too 

 much entangled at the free end. It cannot 

 therefore be decided as yet whether the turns 



are formed consecutively, at the base of a tress, during its growth, or whether, with a constant direction 

 of the basai part, they arise in the course of the tress. The fact is that short tresses with only a few spiral 

 twists and also the top-part of longer tresses show no turning-points. The hairs in the concave bend of a 

 turn are always more or less stretched, describing a much shorter curve, which gives the impression that 

 the turning-points are caused by a certain tension between the outer and the inner hairs of a spiral. The 

 true cause probably is situated in the torsion which each single hair undergoes by the spiral winding. 

 That this torsion really exists, is shown if one suspends vertically a length of hair of say four spiral twists, 

 eut off between two consécutive turning-points, and stretches it by weighting it at the lower end with a 

 small pincette. The latter then turns round in the sensé of unrolling the spiral, but because of the concave 

 side of the hair being shorter than the convex, not fully four times 360 , as would agrée with the 

 number of spiral twists, but only three times 360 , and the hair resists any further turning of the pincers. 



Fig. 208. '/,. Hair tresses with tuvning-points (X). 



