The Van Buren press., 1896-07-25
rHE SKIN AND ITS CHILDREN.
A Man Who Has Counted the Hairs OF ING
Human Head.

A Man Who Has touhieu WV
Human Head.
There are $4,000 hairs ON the human
hodv. Prof. Charles Stewart, who de-
nosed TO this at the Royal institution re-
Gently. has counted them. lie would
not of course, be particular to a ha'r
or two one way or the other, but TINS Oh
fine average is the result. The SKIN mas,
therefore, a very respectable family OF
offsprings. for the biologists can snow
rs beyond all doubt that hairs are alter
oil only special parts of the skin that
nature has modified in this way IN oruei
IN better protect and keep warm her
hirbty important works within. Inc
human skin is a much more complex
sort of fabric than is properly lmaBlneo'
The true skin is right underneath. You
can make its acquaintance with the anu
OF a file or the sharp corner OF n door
lock. The outer skin or cutlcle is really
a continually-renewed shield of horny
scales, which are the cast-otf dead cells
of the living layer below. The unaef
skin ia the real business article, full OF
cunning little "tonch nerves, blooa
vessels, lymphatics, sweat glands, fat
Glands. hair follicles and what not,
The follicles are the pits in which the
hairs are grown, something like celery
and nature has expended apparently Il
quite ridiculous amount OF care on
these structures. The hair in each cell
is direct growth of the skin. grows
at the rate of half an inch month. The
colorinr matter, as we know, is apt to
fade and leave us at the mercy of those
who commend fluids which ARE not
DYES" Prof. Stewart thinks it quite pos
sible that sudden frightm blaneh the
pigment Gin a single night" but how 1t
is done, since this pigment in most cases
is far away from any visible nervous
control, he fails to see. Some people
have peculiar sparkling look about
their sandy hair. The professor traces
this to alterations of white and col
ored growth which he finds correspond
with alternate periods of IL hours
normal growth. The pigment Is, per-
haps, not deposited during the night,
but is during the day, or vice versa.
each particular hair" stands up
"lilxe quilts upon the fretful porcnpinee
| (Which, by the way, are also hairs) by
virtue of an erector muscle, one end of
| which is fastened to the bulb of the hair
and the other to the point Eaar the sur
| face of the skin. When the muscle con-
tracts under nervous excitement the
hair is pulled up vertically Git usually
lies little slantingwise). The pull
on the muscles is also seen at the point
| Of attachment in the skin, giving rise
to the little dimples which, in conjune-
ton with the erect hairs, produce the
appearance known as "gooseflesh.'
Other children of the skin, but only
20 In number, are the nails. These
arise out of sharp folds in the skin, and
are essentially very tough, horny ma
terial built up from the living skin cells,
much in the same way as hairs are built
up. The growth is at the rate of about
the thirty secondth of an inch a week
The nail is fastened to the under skin
by q peculiar system of locking teeth
While talking about the skin Prof. Stew
art did not overlook the "sweat glands, y
which lie buried in the under skin, eX-
tracing from the blood some so ounces
of watery waste products day. These
pass out through corkserew passages
in the outer skin, emerging in the shape
of the myriad little pores, which we can
| lust mike out by the aid of an ordinary
pocket lens. There are about 10000 OF
such openings on the palm of ones
hand Prof. Stewart has counted them
but again he will not risk his reputation
fOr strict veracity on the question of n
single pore one way or another. 1t is
averages he deals in, feeling, of course
| that the public are not eXacting in such