Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/718

700 to buy what we do not want, or being tortured with wretched music and then asked to pay for the infliction. These things and many others of like nature produce more or less mental irritation, according to the sensitiveness of the individual, and help to make up the too great load which the nerves of city dwellers have to bear.

Still another injurious influence, more similar to those mentioned by Dr. Piatt, comes from the frequent startling by sudden noises, or the sudden appearance of danger in city streets. As Dr. Piatt pointed out, the noises of a city are legion. Many of these are so loud and abrupt as to cause a momentary fright; for instance, the crash of wagons and cars in collision, the striking and scraping of the hoofs of horses struggling for a footing on a slippery pavement, the fall of cases, barrels, iron rails, etc., being unloaded from trucks, the blasting for the foundations of buildings (in the outskirts of the city), and other noises, which, while no one may occur often, together make up a large aggregate. In addition to these startling sounds, the city dweller is continually receiving impressions of impending daugerdagger [sic] through the eye. Among these are the causes of the noises just mentioned, if they are close at hand—the toppling wagons, the plunging horses, and the boxes of goods and pieces of building-material escaping from the hands of workmen. Also may be mentioned recklessly driven vehicles, coming upon a foot-passenger from behind at street-crossings; the sudden appearance close to one's face of a long pole, gas-pipe, or other burden carried on the shoulder of a man along a crowded sidewalk; and many similar things incidental to the compressed activity of a city. The shock to the nerve-centers which these momentary frights give, and the nervous strain which the city dweller endures from keeping a lookout for such dangers, can not fail to impair the strength of the nervous system. Through the nerves an injurious influence is exerted upon the heart also. Sudden fright, or other violent emotion, disturbs the working of the heart, and often so far arrests its action as to produce fainting, while cases of immediate death from this cause have been known. Even when the fright is not serious, the cumulative effect of being startled so often must contribute to the growing frequency with which the city dweller "breaks down but doesn't wear out."

Frederik A. Fernald.

New York, July 18, 1888.

Editor Popular Science Monthly:

time to time I have noticed theories expressed in the '* Monthly," setting forth the chief causes of baldness, such as abnormal heat from the head-cover, "constriction of the blood-vessels of the head by tight hats," by Mr. Eaton and Mr. Gouinlock. Prof. T. Wesley Mills holds that "the principal root of the trouble is in nervous strain." All these theories may have something to do with the loss of hair. I am not about to discuss these several theories, or suggest one myself, but will only endeavor to point out a few facts which may be interesting as bearing upon the subject. During several years' residence in Hong-Kong, in my professional duties I had to do with a goodly number of persons, representing a large variety of nationalities, and in my study of these people I found that many theories deduced from local experiences at home were, in some cases at least, hardly broad enough to cover all facts found at large in nature bearing upon the specific points of investigation. Familiar with some of the popular theories as to the cause of baldness, I was surprised to find men who always wore a covering to their heads, and during business hours and always when out of doors wore a very tight hat, were never bald, and possessed a wonderfully strong, thick head of hair. I refer to the Parsees (Persians). There is a sacred, religious law among them that no man shall go with his head uncovered. When the Mohammedans invaded Persia, the major part of the native Persians that were not exterminated fled farther east into India, found protection and a welcome home among the Hindoos, a people of castes, and, in order that these strangers should always be identified, also knowing that their religion obliged them to wear a head-cover, a law was passed to compel all Parsees (Persians) to wear a certain style of hat whenever exposed outside of their own private home. The hat prescribed is as tall as an American silk hat with no brim; it truly might be called a "stove-pipe." This hat is worn, inclining backward on the head from thirty-five to forty degrees, and, in order to keep it on its place, the rim is made to cling very close to the head; being so tight and so constantly worn, quite a deep depression is caused substantially around the head; it seemed as if the skull might be involved, but, not having the opportunity of examining one, I was not able to fully determine. Whenever this hat is removed, a skull-cap immediately takes its place. In my professional duties, these hats often had to be removed, and it appeared to me as a curious fact—if some of the popular theories were altogether true—that these people should never be bald. Therefore, I instituted a series of strict inquiries. Many of these gentlemen spoke English intelligently, also French, German, Persian, and their local Hindoo dialect, some of whom kindly allowed an examination of their heads, and also assured me that they had never known one of their race that was bald.