The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-08-18
Frightfnl Scalp Diseases Transmitted
In False Hair.

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In False Hair.
A terrible alarm has been created
amongst the ladies by the announcement
OF q visitation of the most dreadful kind
nothing less than the arrival of the
horrible disease of the hair known as
the plica polonica, which has hitherto
been confined to the inhabitants of Po-
land and the frontiers of Russia. Nc
medical science has been able as yet to
ascertain the exact cause of the disease,
which renders its victim most hideous
object to behold, transferring sometimes
almost suddenly the most beautiful and
luxuriant crop of hair into matted,
disgusting mass of twisted snake-like
ropes. which stand out in horrible con-
fusion all over the head, through which
no comb can ever be drawn, and which
can never be cut owing to the agglom-
Grafton of the roots into one united
mass. which, as the roots are filled with
blood, would cause the sufferer to bleed
to death were they to he violently re-
moved.
The doctors here account for the ap-
pearance of the disease, in two cases
which have appeared of late, to the re-
cent importation of false hair from Po-
land-a country hitherto forbidden to
traders in the article of false hair. 1t
appears that the hair-cropping season
having been rather unsuccessful in the
usual districts to which the trade has
been till now confined, in consequence
of the immense demand made upon the
peasant girls of the continent for the
last two or three years through the ire
mendous plaits, and "chignons," and
cascades" and "falls -" and ''frizzes :"
that have been worn. heavy enough on
the single head of lady of fashion to
despoil the poor pates of half dozen
poor potato weeders or lace-makers of
the Normandy villages, it has become
necessary to widen the fields of opera
lions, and after ransacking Constanti-
nople, Smyrna and Damascus, the yield
has even then fallen short of the de-
mand.
The traders, after run into Ger
many, have been compelled to make a
swoop down upon Poland, in spite of
the point of honor by which they were
bound to avoid all dealings of the kind
with that country. A lot of the most
beautiful hair was imported thence
from great fair held in the environs of
Warsaw toward the end of the month.
Most of the hair was of the finest and
most silky quality-highly polished,
clean, and evidently well cared for by
its former proprietor; but as most of it
was black it had to be dyed to suit the
fashion of the day, which commands
that every woman that man dalighteth
to honor shall have faxen, red-gOld, or
orange-colored hair. But nothing is
easier to the hair trade than to change
the color, and by the chemical mixtures
manufactured for the purpose this OBJ
ject is attained in moment
However, one of these individuals,
residing in Clerkenwell, who had pur-
chased a bag of Polish hair Of the finest
quality, was Mortified on perceiving the
liquid in which he had plunged it for
dyeing turn gradually of blood-red
color, until the whole mass had changed
to the same lurid tint. Chemists were
called in to ascertain the cause of the
strange occurrence. The mixture was
submitted to analysis, but nothing was
discovered, until at length the doctors
were summoned, and after examination
by the microscope, the bulb of the plica
polonica was detected in great proper
ton of hair which had been bought by
one especial trader who had attended
the fair. 1t was but the germ of the
disease, but the tube of the hair was af-
tected, and had it remained upon the
wearer's head would in a short time
have been developed into the most viru-
lent form of the disease.
Other dealers have kept their discov
cry secret, and have sold the hair at
cheap rate to inferior hairdressers.
Much of it must have been used to Or
the heads of the humble aspi-
rants to fashion and distinction, who
wait behind the bars of the lower pub
lie houses, or behind the counters of the
general shops of the East End. 1t is
certain that two cases of the disease
have been reported-one of them very
young girl employed as nurse in a
family, whose head had
been lately shaved after an attack of
scarlet fever, and who had bought a
9. fringe" to render herself "less shock
ing" beneath her cap. The doctors are,
of course, busily occupied in the inves-
LEGATION of the germs, and undertake
to prevent the spread of the disease.
They remember the failure experienced
by the French and English medical fac
alties in their endeavors to cure the
singer Madame Cruvelli, who was COM
PEELED to leave the stage and retire from
he world, in the midst of career as
brilliant as that of her sister, in conse-
luence of this terrible visitation.-LiU-
''pool (Eng.) Courier.
. Jumbo and the Baby Take q Bath.