Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/398

 384 HAIR HAIZINGER hair are manifest. On the head of man it is one of his chief ornaments, as well as a pro- tection from injury ; on the face it gives char- acter and dignity; on the brows and lids, and at the entrance of the nose and ears, it pre- vents the contact and entrance of foreign bodies; and, even in man, the general covering of hairs doubtless contributes to the warmth and proper electric condition of the skin ; the object of the hair in animals is obvious to every one. The two essential parts of cortex and medulla are found in the hairs of all ani- mals, however much they may differ in ap- pearance. In the cats, seals, and other animals, the whiskers are supplied with large nerves, and become exquisite organs of touch ; in the soft hair of the sable there is very little fibrous portion; in the musk and reindeer the entire substance seems to be composed of delicate polygonal cells ; in the smaller rodents the cortical tubular portion is crossed by trans- verse partitions, partial or complete; in the bats the projections of the cortical scales are often arranged in whorls around the stem ; in the peccary the cortical substance sends in- ward radiating processes whose interspaces are filled with the medullary portion, and this is essentially the structure of the quills of the porcupine, which, as Shakespeare has hinted, are only modified hairs; even the horn of the rhinoceros is only an assemblage of compact hairs, and does not differ in its essential struc- ture from the finest wool. In proportion to the prominence of the imbricated scales will the hair of animals have the property of be- coming felted. In most- nations the adorn- ment of the hair has always formed one of the principal duties of the toilet, and the caprices of different races and epochs in this respect are very remarkable. While the Hebrews and Greeks considered long hair a beautiful object, the Egyptians, regarding it as an incurnbrance, removed it, and substituted light wigs. The Roman ladies used artificial hair, dyed their own, sprinkled it with gold dust, and repre- sented in it various fanciful devices. So desi- rable was a fine head of hair considered, that it became sacred, and was often dedicated to the gods on important occasions of marriage, vic- tory, escape from danger and death, and burial of friends ; plucking it out or neglecting it was a token of affliction. In the time of Francis I. short hair became the fashion, and under Louis XIII. long hair, curls, and wigs; then came hair powders, periwigs, and perukes of mon- strous size, which were banished by the French revolution, since which civilized nations have been in the main content with natural heads of hair. Some persons are born without hair on any part of the body ; on the head it falls off after many febrile diseases, especially typhoid fever, and after erythematous affections of the scalp and irritating applications. Tightly fitting and unyielding hats no doubt contribute largely toward the premature fall and grayness of the hair. The bulbs are often diseased, and in plica Polonica the hair, generally insensible, becomes exceedingly sensitive at the roots and liable to bleed. For the various diseases of the hair tonic and stimulating applications are sometimes beneficial ; when the hair is thin and falls out easily, shaving the scalp will gen- erally produce a thicker, firmer, and darker- colored growth. For diseases of the hair depending on parasites, see EPIPHYTES, and EPIZOA. Microscopic examination shows that the hair of the negro is not wool, though dif- fering considerably in form from that of Eu- ropeans; the form is not connected with the color ; the differences in the form of the hair, being permanent, are considered by some as of the same specific value as those of the fur, feathers, and scales of lower animals. Straight hair approximates to the cylindrical form, but the curled or crisp varieties are flattened ; the negro hair has the deepest longitudinal groove, and a transverse section like that of a bean, and its peculiar twist is said to be due to a greater tension of the fibres along this groove ; the closely matted hair of the Bushman is very flat and ribbon-like, four or five times broader than thick. Many insects are provided with hairs, both in the larval and perfect states, which afford beautiful microscopic objects, from their branches, tufts, spines, and protu- berances. The cuticle of plants is often beset with hairs, made up of a linear series of elon- gated cells, attached end to end; they some- times have glandular bodies connected with them, as those which secrete the viscidity on the leaf of the sundew (droserd), or the irrita- ting liquid of the nettle. In the invertebrates and in plants there are many evident connect- ing links between hairs and scales; vegetable hairs generally exhibit the phenomena of ro- tating fluids, or circulation of currents. HAIR WORM (gordius), the type of the long hair-like annelids of the order (gordiacea) of helminths or entozoa. These thread-like para- sites in their larva state inhabit the bodies of various insects, especially beetles and grass- hoppers; they have a mouth and alimentary canal, but no anus ; the sexes are distinct, and when full grown they leave the bodies of their hosts to deposit their eggs in long chains in water or in moist earth. They look very much like long horse hairs, and have been popularly believed to be -hairs transformed to worms. They often attain a length very much greater than that of the body of the insect they infest, occupying with their coils the larger part of its body. They can endure a great amount of dryness without perishing. HAIZIftGER. I. Anton, a German vocalist, born at Wilfersdorf, Austria, in 1796, died in Carlsruhe, Dec. 31, 1869. He acquired celeb- rity as a tenor, and on retiring from the stage about 1840 he became director at Carlsruhe of a musical school, which trained many fine artists. II. Amalie, wife of the preceding, born in Carlsruhe in 1800. Her family name was Morstadt, and after the death of her first hus-