The Structure Of The Hair. Continued
Description
This section is from the book "The Corner Cupboard; Or, Facts For Everybody", by Robert Kemp Philp. Also available from Amazon: The Corner Cupboard; or Facts for Everybody.
The Structure Of The Hair. Continued
Fig. 4=
Fig. 5.t
Fig. 6 #
=Fig. 4. A portion of hair magnified so as to show the imbrication of the outside.
+ Fig. 5. Longitudinal section of a hair, showing the imbrication of the cortex, and the pigment cells in the fibrous part.
# Fig. 6. Transverse section of a hair, showing the three different textures.
17. The hair varies in length according to situation, sex, and race. In the Kurilian race, there are individuals who have hair growing down the back and covering nearly the whole body. The average length of the beard is ten inches, but some men have had beards that swept the ground. Women have also been met with whose hair reached to their feet; but yet the ordinary length is only from twenty to forty inches.
18. Colour influences its texture: thus flaxen hair is said to be the finest, and black the coarsest; and as hair becomes gray, it becomes coarser. Withof, a German anatomist, states that a square inch of the skin of the head contains 598 black hairs, 648 chesnut hairs, and 728 flaxen hairs.
19. The colours and shades of the human hair are very numerous, and depend, in a measure, upon age, climate, and race. The following table will give some idea of the varieties caused by race and climatal influence :-
Race or Tribe. | Hair. |
Afghans | black. |
Arabs | black and crisp, with grizzly beards. |
Armenians | dark. |
Berberines, or Nubians of the Nile ........ | dark, and strongly frizzled. |
Californians | black, long, very strong, and not woolly. |
Chinese & Indo- Chinese .... | thick, coarse, lank, and black, with scanty beards. |
Circassians | brown or black. |
Egyptians | black and crisp. |
Endamenes (New Guinea) | thick, rough, and shining, without being woolly. |
Esquimaux | coal - black, straight, strong, and long black. |
Ethiopian | black and crisp. |
Greeks | black, brown, and flaxen. |
Kamtschatkans .. | black. |
Kurds ......... | black. |
Kurilians or Ainos | very black. |
Mantschoos | brown. |
Mexicans | thick, black, coarse, and glossy; beard thin. |
Mongolians...... | black, stiff, straight, and sparing. |
Ossetines | |
Patagonians | lank and black; beard scanty. |
Singhalese | black. |
It is worthy of remark with respect to the colour of the hair, that it varies with the colour of the iris, or coloured part of the eye, and the general hue of the skin. It has been remarked, and with more degree of truth than is generally believed, that the darker the hair the stronger the body, and vice versa.
20. The difference of colour in human hair appears to depend, according to Vau-quelin, on the presence or absence of a peculiar oil. He states that black hair consists of, - 1. An animal matter, which constitutes the greater part. 2. A white concrete oil, in small quantity. 3. Another oil of a grayish-green colour, more abundant than the former. 4. Iron, the state of which in the hair is uncertain. 5. A minute proportion of oxide of manganese. 6. Phosphate of lime. 7. Carbonate of lime, in very small quantity. 8. Silex and sulphur, each in considerable quantity.
21. Hair is remarkably elastic and strong. A single hair from the head of a boy only eight years of age supported the weight of 7.812 grains; and one from the head of a man twenty-two years of age supported 14.285 grains. Weber states that a hair 10 inches long will stretch to 13 inches.
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