The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-09-06
Badness AND BRAINS.
Is tNc Loss of Hair Necessarily Followed by
Physical Decay?

Physical Decay?
rho ulterior causes Of badness arc OBJ
scure, but the immediate process is No
doubt a degeneration of the hair bulbs,
which Is due to failure OF nutrition and
implies impaired vitality or loss Of vigSE.
The point needs no argument, though
plenty of medical evidence could 6S
brought TO support it IL necessary. 1t is
universally recognized that an abundance
OF hair gives a look Of youth and vigor,
badness one Of age and decay. This sim
gle feature will make q man of 20 appear
stronger than many a one Of 90. Every
one will admit this with respect to physic-
al vigor, but not of mental. Yet the two
necessarily go together to a great extent,
and this Is where the popular mistake
comes in. What is vigori 1t does NOS lie
In muscular strength, as many may sup
pose, but in a sound condition of the
whole machine and its several parts, and
more particularly Of the nervous ccnters
In the brain, which moye, control and
regulate all the rest. Loss OF vigor means
a corresponding impairment of brain pow
er. and though the higher centers, the seat
of intellect, may not suffer obviously at
first they eventually do SO. Other things
being equal, the sounder man Is all
through the better instrument he makes
for the performance of mental no less than
of physical work, and when his hair be-
gins to go 1t is n sign that he IL not SO
sound as he used TO be or might be. True,
he may have gained in knowledge and ex-
perience and may SO far be better man
intellectually than he was before, but he
Is not SO good man as he would be IL he
had kept his yigor while acquiring his
l.. Ill IL Al
ability, the one who retains the more vigor
possesses In a corresponding measure tho
greater intellectual potency, whether it
takes the form of superior energy in the
present or more prolonged period Of ac-
tiyity-that is to say, a green old age
This seems to be the correct view on
physiological grounds, and surely it is
borne out by experience Here arc somo
names which Immediately occur to the
mind as cases in point: Carlyle, Newman,
Tennyson, Owen, Liszt These were all
men Of exceptional intellectual force, who
reached "A very advanced age--in two cases
an extremely advanced age--whilo retain
ing the use of their faculties in an extraor-
dinary degree, and every one OF them ear-
ried goodly crown of hair either TO tho
very end or far beyond the ordinary span
Is it posslslo to match them with an equal
number of distinguished men who attain
eel the same length of vigorous days with
out natures covcringi We may set John
Stuart Mill against Carlyle, Darwin
against Owen and Won Bulow against
Liszt Mill and Bulow were certainly bald,
Darwin is doubtful, but anyhow they all
died earlier by several years than their
more hirsute rivals. Turning TO the liv
ing, we have Gladstone, Ruskin, Wendell
Holmes, Ibsen, Tolstoi, Verdi, Nirchow,
Pagct, Huxley and many more testifying
In favor of good head of hair" and
proving the absurdity OF the delusion that
badness has any esrt Of connection with
intellect or learning.
To tho writer It appears that badness
means nothing whatever but decay, I'm
which the intellect necessarily shares soon
er or later. There have, of course, been
men of the most commanding intellect
who have grown bald early in life. g.,
Julius Cesar, on the authority Of Sueto-
MUS, and perhaps Shakespeare, but noi-
ther lived long.-St. James Gazette.