THROAT AILMENTS.

161

concerned, are to be found both among the predisposing and the exciting. One of these is the conjoined effects of intense study and mental anxiety. Another cause may be found in the sedentary habits of the clergy; but one which may be deemed pre-eminent as the cause of follicular laryngitis with the members of this profession, is referrible to the great inequality in the daily degree of exercise which they give to their vocal organs. Remaining quiescent, or nearly so, during six days of the week, these organs, on the seventh, are required to perform a more than double duty; and this too, when, from the fact of their having been so long at comparative rest, they are less capable of enduring fatigue than if the muscles, of which they are composed, had been subjected to daily exercise in public speaking. If the labours of clergymen could be equally apportioned to all the days of the week, instead of being weakened and diseased by public speaking, the voice would become strengthened and developed by such employment, and the individual would be much less liable to be affected by laryngeal disease.

The attempt to use the voice by public speaking when the individual is labouring under the effects of a severe cold, or an attack of influenza, or the sudden and violent exercise of the voice, although the vocal apparatus at the time may have been apparently in a healthy condition, has frequently laid the foundation of laryngeal disease.

Follicular inflammation of the throat and air passages, even in its more aggravated form, is not confined altogether to public speakers; persons of all professions and occupations may be the subjects of its attack. Females, however, are much less liable to the affection than men. This immunity from laryngeal and tracheal diseases in the sex has been observed by Messrs. Serres, Louis, and other pathologists.

M

CHAPTER XI.

THE HAIR. THE HANDS.THE FEET.

"Hair! 'tis the robe which curious Nature weaves
To hang upon the head, and does adorn
Our bodies; in the first hour we are born
God does bestow that garment; when we die,
That, like a soft and silken canopy,

Is still spread over us. In spite of death
Our hair grows in our grave, and that alone
Looks fresh when all our other beauty's gone."

DECKER'S Satiromasti.

"The Hand,-what wondrous wisdom plann'd
This instrument so near divine!
How impotent without the hand

Proud Reason's light would shine!
Invention might her power apply,

And Genius see the forms of heaven,

And firm Resolve his strength might try ;
But vain the will, the soul, the eye,
Unquarried would the marble lie,
The oak and cedar flout the sky,

Had not the Hand been given!"

"While his staff the trav'ller handles
In his weary journeying,
Thorns may tear his dusty sandals,
Fangs his tender feet may sting;

But were life devoid of pain,
Bliss were proffer'd man in vain."

IF you pull a hair from any part of your skin, and look at its root with a magnifying glass, you will find it of an oval form, and composed of a softish, glutinous, or pulpy matter, contained in a semi-transparent bag, open

IMPORTANCE OF CLEANLINESS.

163

at the lower end to receive nerves and blood-vessels, and at the upper to receive the hair. This root is fixed in the substance of the inner skin, by which it is nourished with blood and other fluids. The roots of the hair are planted here in great profusion over the whole body.

Each hair is formed of ten or twelve smaller hairs, which unite at the root, and form a hollow tube some what like a very fine stalk of grass, and also, like some kinds of grass, jointed at intervals. The joints seem to overlap one another, as if one small tube were inserted into another, and so on to the end of the hair. This structure, though invisible to the naked eye, may be made manifest to the touch. Take a hair several inches long, and work it between your thumb and finger, and you will find it will always work towards the top end, and never (turn it as you will) towards the root end, proving that the rough overlappings are all directed to the top. It is this property that the hat-maker takes advantage of in making his felt, and the dyer in fixing his colours. Like the outer skin and the nails, the hollow tube of the hair is semi-transparent, and takes the colour of the matter which rises in this tube from the root. It follows, indeed, pretty uniformly the colour of the skin, being very dark in the negro, and always white in the albino, whilst it takes all intermediate shades in Europeans-flaxen, auburn, carroty,

&c.

The hair corresponds also with the colour of the eyes, light hair seldom accompanying dark eyes.

Cleanliness of the hair is of the first importance, and to effect this nothing is better than soap and water. The soap should be mild, well and plentifully rubbed in, and afterwards thoroughly removed with an abundance of water. The frequency with which this process should be repeated will depend upon the individual: persons with light, thin, and dry hair will require it more seldom than those with thick, greasy hair, or who perspire very freely. Once a week could scarcely be deemed too troublesome when the object in view is consi

dered, and this may serve with most persons, though those in whom the last-mentioned qualities of hair are very marked would benefit by a more frequent resort to it.

The comb and brush should be next considered. The former should have fine teeth, and they should be inserted to the roots of the hair as nearly parallel with the scalp as possible, and then drawn gently along the full length of the lock, which, if long and thick, should be held by the other hand between the comb and the roots, when the former is sufficiently distant from the head, in order to prevent any strain upon the latter. In this way it does its work very effectually, and does not injure the glands. To smooth the hair, and put it into proper position, it may have to be carried along perpendicularly to the surface, but this can be done without pressing it in too much. For the same reasons the brush should not be used too forcibly, or with too much pressure.

When there is any tendency to sores or eruptions on the heads of children fine combs are very apt to promote them. There is no doubt that the heads of young persons which are never touched by them may be preserved much cleaner by strict attention than such as are scratched and scraped every day. If any dirt appear on a child's head which a brush will not remove, that particular part should be rubbed with a towel and soap and water; but, in general, the brush will be found quite sufficient to keep it perfectly clean.

The more seldom, indeed, a fine comb is applied to the head of an infant the better. When, however, those of ivory, tortoiseshell, or bone are used, the greatest care is necessary, lest they wound the skin and produce a sore, or, by unduly irritating it, augment the production of the scurf they are often intended to remove.

It should be particularly remembered that no strain should be made on the roots of the hair, either in the act of "doing" it up, or when done up. To this strain it is owing that so many women, and young ones too, are bald on the sides of the head, the very last place,

USE OF POMADES.

if ever, that nature makes them so.

165

With some, from

the same cause, the top of the head, where the parting" comes, is not only destitute of hair, but even the hair-glands themselves are destroyed long before middle age has arrived. Making the hair too compact, so as to heat the head, incurs the risk of impairing the health of the hair-glands, and inducing early baldness or loss of colour.

Pomades and similar preparations should be used as sparingly as possible, and only when necessary on account of some real imperfection of the hair, such as a roughness or too great dryness of it. Some persons imagine that the roots require frequent anointing, that the hair may grow more freely. This is a great mistake; cleanliness will do all that is wanted there, and clogging up the pores with grease is not the way to procure a healthy condition of the scalp and its appendages.

The best form for using any unctuous substance is to have it mixed with some liquid. This enables it to be more easily distributed through the hair, and makes it more convenient to apply.

An excellent preparation is made by gradually adding to white brandy as much castor-oil as it can hold in suspension, afterwards adding a slight surplus, and neutralising this last with ammonia-water. As small an amount of any favourite perfume as will overpower the castor-oil odour will complete the compound.

This is the staple of many preparations which are sold, under different names, as "wonderful restorers

and beautifiers of the hair."

M. Cazenave, the eminent French physician, some few years since wrote an excellent treatise on human hair, which was translated by Dr. Burgess. Respecting baldness the author says, "Whether resulting from general disease or from profound constitutional disturbance, baldness will disappear in most cases with the removal of the cause which produced it. However, in this and similar instances the efforts of nature may be assisted by useful and efficacious remedies. These