The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-02-05
Hair Parting-A Scientific Essay on
.,.. ..s.,, the. Subject. ....

The scientific aspects of parting the
hair in the middle might answer for the
topic of clever paper in the Fort.
nightly Reoiew of the North american,
and it is with, some vague expectation
that the learned anthropologists con-
nected with those publications will take
up the subject that the following curso-
rily collected data are submitted: At a
recent meeting, of college alumni, at
tended by 225 persons, of ages varying
from 25 to 20, a curious observer was at
some pains to take the statistics on this
point. OF the whole number, 43 were
found actually to part their hair in the
middle, and, forming judgment based
upon purely optical facts, data Of ap-
parent age), SO out Of the As were less
than 80 years old, while the other four
were between 80 and so. In addition
to this class, there was still larger one,
numbering 81. in all, who parted their
locks little to the left-half way on
the average, between the median line
and the line usually adopted, which, by
the way, is the line prescribed by the
Jaws of symmetry as maturity advances.
OF these, the majority were men of mid
die age, who had evidently shifted the
division gradually to the left to main
tain facial and cerebral symmetry that
had ceased to be attainable in the use Of
the middle line. Only a left-handed
man." says a curious observer of vital
phenomena, &C ever parts his hair on the
right side," and, in verifcation Of this
observation, which is a correct but
purely empirical one, it is found that
most active right handed persons actu-
ally part on the left side. The same
rule, which, in one collection of college
alumni, had led nearly all the older
members to shift the line insensibly to-
ward the left as maturity advanced, is
seen to be operative in general society.
The competent anatomical observer
will not seek long in vain for the
solution Of this apparently in
explicable phenomenon. With males
who are born right-handed the
Development Of the left hemisphere
of the brain. after 20 years of age, in
contact with actual affairs, advances
with considerable more rapidity than
that of the right, and its convolutions
are correspondingly more distinctively
marked and more clearly defined to the
eye of the anatomist. At % years old
! the difference in weight and volume,
and in the definition of the convolutions,
is generally not very material; as a
natural consequence, the two sides of
| the head are symmetrical, and the hair
can be parted in the middle with good
artistic results. At 45, on the contrary,
the volume of the left hemisphere, and
of the left side of the Uranium, has been
increased by constant exercise until the
whole ensemble is symmetrical with the
hair divided along the median line, and,
with the progress of this symmetry,
the owner insensibly shifts the line,
barring the left side of its natural weight
of hair, and urging it toward the right,
to compensate for the comparative lack
of convexity on that side Exclusive Of
occasional cases of badness, where
there is an extrinsic reason for combine
the hair over, observation indicates very
clearly that few men who commence
with parting in the middle ever shift
the line by sudden impulse, On the
I contrary, the result obtained at so il
generally gradual one, brought abou,
by the increasing development of ths
left hemisphere, and the progressive
necessity for restoring the symmetry o.
the head and face as age advances
With women, whose activities are les
of the motor and muscular, and more o
the sentimental type, than those of men
the median line generally continues dur
ing life to be the line Of symmetry
N. Y. Times,