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198 poor, as a rule, if cleanly, have very good heads of hair, because they are generally uncovered in the open air; but it has frequently been observed that, looking down at the stalls in any theatre, the vast majority of their male occupants over thirty years of age have heads as innocent of hair as the backs of their hands. Besides the mental work of men in this position, there is another great cause for their baldness. Stockbrokers, merchants, and others engaged in the City wear tall hats, both in their offices as well as out, all day long, as a matter of form, and almost of etiquette. This may appear almost incredible, but it is none the less true. A young friend of mine, calling on business on a stockbroker, as habitually, removed his hat on entering the office; but, before he had been there long, the owner remarked: "You had better put on your hat, or people will think you are quite ignorant of city customs."

The tall, stiff hat, whether silk or felt, is a most insanitary article of dress. It presses on the arteries entering the scalp, and so lessens its blood supply, interfering with the nutrition of the hair. It is practically impervious to air, of which it contains a certain quantity that soon becomes poisoned by the excretions of the skin of the head.

Air is, moreover, as I have said, a bad conductor, and the air in the hat becomes heated with heat from the head, which, not being able to rise through the hat, it retains. It also becomes charged with moisture given from the skin, and the hat is so constructed, with a leather round the edge, that