WHY BALD HEADS SHINE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 148, 25 June 1898, Page 3 (Supplement)

WHY BALD HEADS SHINE.

Mons. t faebourand, former pupil of M. J. asteur s scnopi, uas round tne mighty microbe that mai.es men and women lose tiioir hair—the httie beast wlio is responsible for the shiny pate or tne uiuortunate baldhead. aa uescribes It as a minute, colourless body, pointed at both ends, ana increasing- m numbers by constant division into two, and since tne envisions do not always immediately break on, long chains irequenuy lorin, eacft linK beiny a distinct micro De.

The pestiieruus organism congregates in colonies ot enormous nuniben. in me upper part ot tne hair i'onicie below tne epidermis, and just where the svu-at gland joins the follicle. At this pont there is somewhat ot an enlargement, ana in this little caAdty it finds a convenient habitat. Each colony is wrapped" up into a kind of cocoon bytatty matter from the sebaceous gland; tne cocoons A-ary in size, and are easy to obtain by squeezing the skin at the mouth ot the gland.

The microbe or baldness has been isolated and grown as a culture on a suitable medium, when it appears as a colourless form, changing later into one of brick red hue. But how is 'it that this microbe, not being at the root of tne hair, but at some distance above it in the follicle, causes the hair to fall out? Its method of attack is as folioAvs:— The development and groAVth df the microbe causes certain changes in its environment—the breaking up for instance of substances around, from Avhich it obtains necessary food and energy— and the cycle of results thus brought about gives the production of a substance poisonous to "the root of a hair. This toxin passes down, to the root and acts as a slow poison, not killing all at once, but inducing certain characteristic symptoms; the hair becomes lighter in colour until its pigment has practically disappeared, its diameter gradually lessens, it becomes brittle and dried up and eventually dies and falls out. The root, though Aveakened by the poison, sends up another hair to replace the fallen one, but the new outgrowth begns lite feebler and poorer than its predecessor, so it too, only Avith greater speed, becomes a Adctim. And so the process goes on; each successive growth starts more weakly its light against the insinuating poison and more quickly succumbs, until a point is reached Avhere tlie root can no longer make a fresh effort; for it has also fallen completely under the noxious influence and is killed. This course of events occurring, as it does, simultaneously in hundreds of adjacent hair follicles, naturally results in complete baldness.. To prove that this microbo is the cause and not merely the accompaniment of baldness, M. Sebourand isolated it and cultivated it in a suitable liquid. After the microbe had multiplied and developed he filtered the liquid through porcelain, and belieAdng that if his theories were true the filtered liquid Avould contain the substance they produced poisonous to the hair, he took a rabbit and inoculated it deeply under the skin with the fluid. As he hoped the rabbit speedily began to lose Its fur, and in six weeks it was completely denuded, in fact, it had become entirely bald.