The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-03-14
BALD HEADS ARE
CAUSED BY HABIT
U. S. Surgeon Cobb Says MaIady
Is Due to Tight Hats and
Lack of Care
Civilization Is Blamed for Mans
iii While Heredity Is Scoffed-
Many DOn'tS Advised

Washington, March 14-People have
been bald ever since the dawn of time
-why2 BARRIERS have half a dozen diff
ferent theories and half a dozen
'-cures''-but what is the scientific fact
about the -disease2' Here is the
it, and knows:
By Surgeon J. o. Cobb. q S Public
Health Service, Chicago.)
A large percentage OF the men of all
civilized nations suffer from badness.
It is not a new disease It was known
by the grandsires of medicine for
Hypocrates and Aescu1apius were as
bald as Father Time himself The
mummy of Pharaoh Rameses II. is
bald, and Papyrus Ebers, Q5O0 B. CO
gives eleven prescriptions for bald
ness
Badness was rare among the Jews
except those who wore the head gear
OF rank, or the metal helmet in war.
The affection is nearly unknown
among semi-civilized peoples Old ne
groes and old Indians are seldom bald
That 1t is an aff1iction of civilized life
is certain. for it is rarely found among
those who live in dirt and squa1or;
and though these people have all the
known parasitic, or other scalp dis
eases, general badness is not one of
them, even among the aged While
common among men of certain class
es or castles, it has always been an
uncommon occurrence among women,
whether rich or poor, savage or civ
iIized- And what was true then, is
just as true today, for though a wo-
mans hair may fall and thin out from
worry, lack of out-door-exercise, ETC.,
she seldom becomes bald like a man,
even in old age. There must be some
prominent, strongly significant reason
for this peculiar selectiVe action of
badness for men. 1t is certainly not
the excessive brain work which caus-
es the heat of their noble thoughts to
rise to the dornes of their heads and
SINCE off their hair as these unfortu-
mates would like US to believe.
Tt is hard to make the average per
son believe that badness Is not a
disease caused by germs or by dand-
ruff, by some OF the scarecrow
names Quacks use in their advertise
ments. That it is a condition brought
about almost solely by the tight nat
band and heavy hat few will believe.
1t 1s granted, for arguments sake only,
that dandrun and certain scalp par
asites well known to skin specialists
may be causative factors in the pro-
gressive thinning out of the hair, but
they become harmful only after the
tight hatband has caused trophic
changes in the nerves and blood YES
sells which supply the crown of the
head. After the fatty cushion at the
top of the head is partly destroyed,
the scalp becomes bound and the skin
thinned out and shiny, and it is then
that the hair loses it's vigor and the
dandruff hair parasites may attack it
but only down to the zone of the
hatband. Below the hatband zone,
strangely enough, the hair is healthy,
and persists to old age and it is but
reasonable to believe that if the fall
ing out had been due to germs, or par
asites the badness would have been
general over the entire scalp, even
down below this zone, instead of Sc
Letting the frontal portion, or the
dome of the head. Then, too, if the
deformity is caused solely by hair
parasites, why is it that women es-
cape badness? They are certainly not
| immune to other scalp diseases, and
if badness is contagious they have
ease, if it is catching.
Heredity is given as a predisposing
cause of most badness, and it is true
that where the condition is found in
| a young man one is certain to find
that the affection is characteristic of
the male relatives of one both sides
of his house And along with his own
susceptibility to badness, it is just
as likely to be another characte x4stic
of this mans family that its women
will have fine thick heads of hair.
That is a frequent coincidence not
/ easily explainable from the stand