Excerpt from The English Cyclop�dia, Vol. 3: A New Dictionary of Universal Knowledge; Natural History

Little need be said of the diseases of hairs. Possessing neither weasels nor nerves, .exoept at their base, they are rarely altered except by the diseases of the skin itself. [enroranw] Their fall, as it is called, is in most animals annual, but in man seems not to occur except by accident, or after particular diseases. The process by which it takes place is unknown, but is probably similar to that of the shooting of the quills of the porcupine, by the gradual approximation of the base of the follicle to the surface. Their loss of colour, which is sometimes exceedingly rapid, is owing to deficient secretion of the colouring oil, and can only. Very rarely be remedied. When sufficient moisture is not supplied they sometimes split at their points like bristles at others they break at the middle of the shaft, ens ping off, and leaving a little fringed extremity to the stump. He most singular alteration however to which they are subject is that called the 'plica poionica, ' imm its occurring almost exclusively in some towns in Poland, in which, with so much general diseeseas sometimes proves fiatel, the hair of the head becomes sticky and matted together, when touched gives extreme pain, and is sometimes said even to bleed when out. This fact cannot however be regarded as evidence of the hair naturally containing vessels, though it indicates an elongation of the pulp to some distance beyond the skin, just as is' the case in dog. Whose whiskers will sometimes bleed if out very close to the surface. [8mm.

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