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Show A BARBER ON BALDNESS. Speaking of the credulity of many people touching the efficacy of hair tonics, and intelligent French hairdresser says: Very often the hair falls out after sickness. In such cases it generally grows again without the aid of any hair tonic whatever; but when it falls out from natural causes it never grows again. The celebrated Dr. Bazio, who was formerly physician in chief of the St. Louis Hospital in Paris, and who is known throughout the world as the most learned specialist for affections of the skin, told me one day that there was nothing that could make the hair grow after the baldness had come on gradually. This I believe firmly, for, if there was anything of the kind, we would not see so many New York doctors with heads as completely destitute of hair as the backs of turtles. I am even persuaded that these gentlemen would follow the example of those Greek heroes, who, under the leadership of Jason, made a voyage to Colchis to bring back the Golden Fleece. Modern Argonauts, the doctors, would consider themselves happy if they could bring from such a voyage the secret of restoring the human fleece. I don't think I am far from the truth when I say that during the past twenty-five years that I have practiced the profession of hairdresser, I have made the trial upon different bald heads of more than five hundred different hair tonics, and I am bound to admit that I never saw a single head the hair of which was restored after baldness. At the end of so many failures, I am completely undeceived as to the value of all the preparations, and I would not now recommend any one of them, because I would be afraid to commit the crime that is designated by the words, "obtaining money under false pretenses." In my pathological studies upon the hair, I have found that people who perspire a great deal from the head are apt to get bald. The bad habit of wearing hats indoors is also very hurtful to the hair. In 1806, after the famous battle of Jena, in which the Prussians were completely defeated by Napoleon I, Baron Larrey, the celebrated military surgeon, perceived that many of the German prisoners were completely bald. Surprised, he made inquiries as to the cause of this, and he found that they owed their baldness to the shape - as homely as unhealthy - of their caps. The foul air of their head-gear, having to issue, destroyed the vitality of the hair. - Scientific American. |