The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-07-08
THE SKIN AND ITS CHILDREN.
4 Han Who Has Counted the Hairs Of the
Human Head.

Man Who Has Counted the Hairs Of the
Human Head
There are 3S4, 900 hairs on the hunaz
body. Prof. Charles Stewart, who de
posed to this at the Royal institution re-
Gently. has counted them. He would
not, of course, be particular TO hair
or two one way or the other, but this on
the average is the result. The skin has,
therefore, very respectable family O;
offsprings, for the biologists can show
US beyond all dou5t that hairs are after
all only special parts Of the skin that
nature has modified in this way in order
to better protect and keep warn her
highly important works within. The
human skin is a much more complex
sort of fabric than is properly imagined.
The true skin is right underneath. You
can make its acquaintance with the aid
of a file or the sharp corner Of dooz
lock. The outer skin or cuticle is really
a acknowledgement shield of horny
scales, which are the cast-of dead cells
Of the living layer below The under
skin 81 the real business article, full of
cunning little "touch nerves." blood
vessels, 1ymphatics, sweat glands, fat
glands. hair foHicles and what not.
The follicles arc the pits in which the
hairs are grown, something ike celery,
and nature has expended apparently a
quite ridiculous amount Of care on
these structures. The hair ineeeh cell
is direct growth of the skin. ItgroTs
at the rate of half an inch month. The
coloring matter, as we know, is apt to
fade and leave us at the mercy Of those
who commend f,uids which "are not
DYES" Prof. Stewart thinks it quite pos
sible that sudden fright may blauch the
pigment '|in a single night" but how il
e done, since this pigment IN most casea
is far away from any visible nervous
control, he fails to see. Seine people
have a peculiar sparkling look about
their sandy hair. The professor tracei
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
"like oui1ls upon the fretful porcupine"
(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
aud the other to the point near the sur
face of the skin. When the muscle con-
tracts under nervous excitement the
hair is pulled up vertically lit usually
IL
On the muscles is sise seen at the point
of attachment in the skin, giving rise
to the little dinples which, in cortunc
ton with the erect hairs, produce the
appearances known az 'goosefesh."
Other children of the skin, but only
20 in number, are the nails. These
arise out of sharp folds in the skin, and
Hre essentially very tough, horny ma
terial built up from the living skin cells
much in the same way as hairs IRE built
up. The growth is at the rate of about
the thirty-secondth CT an inch a week.
The nail is fastened to the under skin
by a peculiar system Of locking teeth.
While talking about the skin Prof. Stew
art did not overlook the "sweat glands"
which lie buried in the under skin, ex-
tracing from the blood some so ounces
OF watery waste products day. These
pass out through corkscrew passages
in the outer skin. emerging in the shape
of the myriad little pores, which we can
just make out by the aid OF an ordinary
pocket lens. There are about $4,000 Of
such openinrs 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
single pore one way or another. 1t is
averages he deals in, feeling, of course,
that the public are not exacting In such
nsatters.-London Graphic.