Volume 2

Health lectures for the people.

Date:
1883-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health lectures for the people. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    121/600 (page 109)
    Independently of colour, however, there are characters present in the hair which separate many of the races of man widely from each other. In the Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and natives of High Asia, the hair is long, straight, and harsh like a horse's mane. Amongst the Negroes, Hottentots, and Papuans it is crisp and woolly. Between these extremes we may place the Euro- peans, in whom the hair is wavy and flowing. This marked difierence in the hair of these races depends in a great measure upon the contour of the hair shaft. The straight, stiff hair of the American or Japanese is cylindrical, and when Fig. 6. Transverse sections of hairs of four different races. A. North American Indian. B. English. C. Negi'O, D. Papuan. They are not drawn to scale, and the English hair therefore appears much too large. cut across, the section appears circular. The woolly hair of the Negro and Papuan is flattened and tape-like, and shows an oval outline when cut transversely. The hair of the European holds a middle place in this respect, and presents a slightly oval figure when seen in transverse section. Here then is the reason why in certain individuals the hair is curly, and in others lank and straight. It is simply due to a difference in the contour of the shaft. A circular shaft causes the hair to lie smooth and straight, whilst an oval shaft give rise to waviness or curling, according to the degree of flattening it presents.^ * The close curling of the negro's hair would also seem to depend upon another factor. In the negro scalp the hair-follicles are curved, which doubtless would tend to produce a spiral twist in the hair.