The anatomy and physiology of the hair : with directions for preventing baldness, removing dandruff, and preserving the natural beauty and softness of the hair / by William Bogle, artist in hair.

  • Bogle, William (Artist in hair)
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The anatomy and physiology of the hair : with directions for preventing baldness, removing dandruff, and preserving the natural beauty and softness of the hair / by William Bogle, artist in hair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    this, there is another substance, of an oily nature, from which he considers the color of the hair to be derived. He also found this coloring matter of the hair to be destroyed by acids, and suggests that when it has suddenly changed color, and become grey in consequence of any great mental agi¬ tation, this may be owing to the production of an acid in the system which acts upon the coloring matter. But this is mere hypothesis, as is also the theory of Dr. Bostock, who attrib¬ uted the cause to “ the sudden stagnation of vessels which secrete the coloring matter, while the absorbents continue to act and remove that which already exists.” Our know¬ ledge is limited to the fact that a sudden and decided change in the whole pileous system occurs after great or prolonged mental agitation. But a similar, though more gradual change is produced by age. Lepelletier ascribes the change of col¬ or to two very different causes. First, to defective secretion of the coloring fluid, without any privation of nutrition. In this case the hairs may live and retain their hold, as we observe in young individuals:—and secondly, to the canals, which convey the fluid into the hair, being obliterated, as in old age. The same cause, acting on the nutritious vessels of the bulb, produces, successively, privation of color, death, and loss of these epidermoid productions. According to oth¬ er physiologists, the seat of the color is in the horny covering of the hair. The exact relations between the cuticle, the rete mucosum, and the hair, are not known. It is not deter¬ mined whether the layers are simply perforated by the hair in its passage outwards, or whether they furnish its coats as it proceeds along. There is often, however, an intimate re-