Evening star., 1914-10-18
HAIR AND HEADS

what microbian disease may infect, if there
is a plump layer of fat underneath the scalp,
leaving it free to wriggle and be wriggled,
without wriggGng the skin of the face or
the back of the neck at the same time, there
is hope.
This explains why hair falls out after ex-
hausting fevers, and comes in again. The
body's fat supply is burnt up by the febrile
process, or is drawn upon and utilized to
furnish energy. Consequently the hair suf-
fers from lack of food, and signifies the same
bv coming out by handfuls. When the pa
tient becomes a fathead once more the hair
returns-to stay awhile.
And this is the crux of the plaintive tale
of the Hair That Was Lost 1t doesn't
matter what else you may have in the way
of robust health, golfers constitution, or
unlimited time and means wherewith to care
for your head, if the layer of the fat is not
there. For this fat supplies the scalp with
a First National Bank reserve upon which
the hair bulbs may draw at their leisure.
And further, it keeps the scalp freely NOV
able: not bound down over bony skull
like the leather on a baseball. We might
almost translate the relations Of fat and hair
and head by saying that one chief reason
the scalp does not move. All the care and
coaxing in the world will not prevent the
hair from deserting a sterile pasture. 1t
isn't "early piety," or a twenty horsepower
brain that causes badness: it is lack of food,
and the presence of microbes. This is the
clue. Now, how to apply Our knowledge.
FIRST, we must understand that germs
L cause irritation; irritation causes in
fammation; and inflammation eats up fat
and sometimes forms scar tissue in its
place. With these facts in mind, let us ex-
anime the chief causes of Inflammation.
Most important of these is seborrhea, a
highly contagious disease. 1t is caused by
microbes, and may be-in fact, almost al
ways is-contracted in barber shops or hair
dressing establishments, or by using toilet
articles that have been injected by vic
tim of dandruff. The pathological action
set UP by these microbes produces an in
creased flow of the oily secretions at the
roots of the hair. These secretions harden
and form scales on the surface of the scalp,
which obstruct the mouths of the glandular
ducts, fill UP the hair follicles, and choke the
life out of the hair.
In fact, many medical men contend that
the dandruff germ can @eat off the hair
itself, without going through the roundabout
method of cutting off its base of supplies.
In proof they submit that in some of these
ancient brushes fastened with chain to the
washstand in certain old-fashioned hotels
those awful places advertised as "homellke"
the bristles themselves are partly de-
stroyed by microorganisns. This, however,
is probably an error in diagnosis.
In treating seborrhea a weekly shampoo
of the scalp with petroleum. ,-fortnightly in
the case of women,-followed by thorough
washing with some bland vegetable soap in
cooperating cocoanut or olive oil
in its base, afterward rinsing free
ly and rubbing the scalp with
olive or castor oil, affords good
results. 1t may take many weary
months of treatment, however,
before these are apparent.
A fungoid disease of the scalp, &
which afflicts our foreign-born -
population more frequently than ~
- H. 49, f,x-,