Page:Weird Tales Volume 09 Issue 02 (1927-02).djvu/133



ROM time to time, in letters to The Eyrie, readers have affirmed that it is impossible for hair to turn white overnight from a sudden dreadful shock; that there are no nerves in the hair-follicles, and therefore a sudden fright can turn hair white only at the roots. The nerves touching the hair-roots (say these readers) can cause the hair to turn white at the base, and grow out white, but the hair that is already grown out can't possibly turn white.

However, the belief that hair can turn white from a sudden shock is so universal that we asked Dr. W. A. Evans, well-known writer on medical subjects and former Chicago health commissioner, to settle the question for our readers, bearing in mind Byron's lines in The Prisoner of Chillon:

Dr. Evans quotes from Pusey's The Care of the Skin and Hair (page 169): "Grayness is often influenced by emotional and other mental trials, particularly those that are prolonged, and it is not an uncommon occurrence to see it develop rapidly from grief, severe business anxiety or other conditions of intense mental strain. That grayness sometimes occurs suddenly is a general impression which I believe is correct. It is difficult to understand the mechanism of its sudden production: but some of the most unromantic and reliable scientific observers have recorded cases of it."

That seems to settle the ease in favor of those writers of weird stories who let their story-people's hair turn white overnight, "as men's have grown from sudden fears." Pusey, says Dr. Evans, is an authority.

Writes Jack Conroy, of Hannibal, Missouri: "Three months ago, while waiting for a train in an isolated railroad station, I picked up a copy of the August and was thunderstruck by the transformation. All of the tales possessed a distinct literary quality and three of them are good enough to be chosen by O'Brien for his Best Short Stories. I refer to The Woman of the Wood by A. Merritt, The Whistling Monsters by B. Wallis, and The Monster-God of Mamurth by Edmond Hamilton. The two succeeding numbers have not been entirely as good, but good enough to surpass any other magazine in the field. The Bird of Space and its sequel were excellent, and Across Space captivates the interest. Your poetry is chosen with