330 PRINCIPAL SIR WILLIAM TURNER ON 



Implantation. — An important character in the growth of the hair in the scalp 

 was recognised by the late Mr Charles Stewart,* who compared the implanta- 

 tion of the hair in the European with that in the Negro, and who stated that 

 in the latter the hair and its follicle were " remarkably curved so that they 

 commonly described a half circle," whilst in the European the follicular hair was 

 straight. This observation on the follicular hair in the Negro was verified by 

 Dr Anderson Stuart, t though the amount of the curve was, he said, not more than 

 about a quarter circle ; further, he associated the curve with the curl of the hair, 

 which gave to the hair in the Negro its woolly character after being extruded 

 through the skin. 



Fritsch in his recently published treatise has added materially to our knowledge 

 of the implantation of hair and the direction of its follicle in various races of men. 

 He has described numerous sections through the scalp, perpendicular as well as 

 transverse to the surface. Thus in Europeans, Chinese, Indians, Javanese and 

 Fellahs the follicle with its included hair was directed vertically, or almost vertically, 

 to the surface of the skin : but in other Europeans, in Fellahs, Arabs, Abyssinians 

 and Japs the direction was oblique but not curved. In Admiralty Islanders again 

 and other Melanesians, in Papuans, in the Herero Bantu people, and more strongly 

 in the Hottentots he saw the follicle with its included hair markedly curved. The 

 vertical and in some degree slightly obliquely directed hair follicles were thus associ- 

 ated with straight-haired races, whilst the curved follicles were characteristic of the 

 woolly and frizzly haired people. The inference drawn by Anderson Stuart from 

 his observation on a Negro has therefore been confirmed by more extended enquiries. 



I have examined the implantation of the scalp hair of the Negro in both vertical 

 and transverse sections. When the section was perpendicular to the surface the 

 hairs and follicles could seldom be seen in their entire length ; they were cut across 

 obliquely sometimes more than once. It was obvious, therefore, that the hairs did 

 not pass straight from the papilla of origin to the place of exit on the surface, but 

 had a curved direction, which varied in its degree in different hairs. It seemed as 

 if the curve of the hair increased in rapidity as it approached the surface, so that it 

 emerged at a more or less acute angle to the surface of the scalp (fig. 25). 



The deep end of the follicle had a characteristic appearance. Instead of being 

 vortical like the papilla it was usually abruptly bent to one side, as if, from the 

 beginning, an oblique or curved direction was thus given to the growth of hair and 

 follicle, which, together with the more rapid curve near its emergence, contributed 

 to the production of the spiral turn of the woolly locks on the scalp of the Negro. 



Fritsch figured the hair in the scalp in several tribes of African Bantus and 

 Papuans in which the direction of the hair follicle was like that above described, 

 and the bend in the follicle in the Hottentots was so marked that its direction 



* " Note on the Scalp of a Negro," Royal Microscopical Society, January 1, p. 54, 1873, 

 t Journal of Anal, and Phys., vol. xvi. p. 362, 1882, 



