The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1903-08-08
DUE TO BRAIN WORK
CAUSE OF GRAY HAIR ON Pro
FESSlONAL MEN.
Thinkers May Properly Be Divided
Into Three Groups-Heredity Also
Is Factor-science Has Read,
Explanation.

y
is established that the man who is
engaged in professional work will
grow gray sooner than will the mar
who earns his bread by the literal
sweat of his brow. Thus by impIica
ton the man who has more and hard
er brain work than another-more
worries, more troubles, more difficult
thoughts, less vitality in proportion
this is the individual and the profes
sion that soonest are marked by gray
hairs.
But who shall decide which is
which," asks DR.. l. N. Danforth, who
has made study of both bald and
gray heads. 1.-THE doctor and the law
yer and the minister and the business
man and the whole category of men
are willing to go on record as being tie
victims of the hardest possible occu'
pationS.
THUS far, however, one may be
certain: In the professions generally
there are three groups which may be
taken up as suggestive of the manner
in which heads grow white. First OF
these are the Representatives who are
on the outskirts of even moderate
success of life. They have the bur
den of living more than the burden Of
ambitions. They have to work hard
er toward making the end of things
meet than they work toward attain
ment of their skill as professional
men. These are of the class which
get gray early even if there be nc
disposition on the part of their an
cestry to become gray early in life,
Just to the extent that they are sus
ceptible to the worries and pinchings
of life, to that extent they become
gray and prematurely old.
Another class are the happy men
They are capable, of bounded ambi
tons, and are content with the sue
cesses that come to men who bore
with small augurs and learn well the
philosophy of living for ease and com,
fort They have horizons that are
wide enough, they have learned tc
avoid cares, and between working
well and not worrying they never
grow gray! you will see them long
after the allotted span of life scarce
ly any gray hairs and with small
trace Of badness.
THAT third type of professional
sfonal ladder the world over. Thei1
brains are filled with surging ideas !;
there is no rest for the gray matter
within their skulls; before blood nu.
triton can get to the hair it is cut
off and subverted to the use of the
brain until the logical result of years
of this is either gray hair or no hail
at all. There is a disposition to bald
ness instead of grayness, but in many
ways the two conditions are brought
about by the same causes.
In general the man who thinks
will be gray before the man whe
works without thinking: To the ex
tent that the thinker fails to take
exercise, is sedentary in his work and
habits, and allows his system to lapse
in tone, just to that extent he will be
come prematurely gray.
"As factor in grayness, however
heredity has more to do with it than
anything else. In my own family
everybody had been in the habit Of
getting gray or bald at 40, and as 8
result I am a good deal of both.''
Logically and naturally gray hairs
may be expected to appear on the
temples at IS or 40 years old. Brown
Sequard is an authority for the state.
ment that the first of these gray hairs
turn white in a night. His observa
ton is based upon the white threads
that appeared in his own beard. Look
ing in the mirror one morning, he dis.
covered a single white hair that was
not there the night before. He moi
only pulled it out, but before going te
bed again he made careful search
for other white hairs. Satisfied that
none was left, he went to sleep again,
only to find that while he slept two
other gray hairs had turned white in
the same area where he had marked
the first.
In this way DR.. Brown-Sequard be
comes to an extent sponsor for. the
story of the man whose hair turned
white in a night, caused from fright
This is the story which dermatolo
gists in all time have SHE'D at, but
which at the same time has been or
a much stronger footing than any.
thing in the line of ghosts, sea ser
penis or mermaids.-Chicago Tri
hune ~ -. Is ..;