have your hair cut regularly once a week; in the
second place, this cutting operation ought to
be performed by the author of the theory,
who alone knew how to turn a strip into a
cylinder.

Sometimes, too, in a moment of weakness, a
family doctor may be induced to prescribe for
falling hair. He does it cautiously. "Mind,"
he says, "I don't say it will be effectual in your
case, but it is undoubtedly the best thing known
for making the hair grow. Last year I had three
young ladies under my care, who were terribly
frightened about their hair, and it's now thicker
than ever." You cannot fail to have faith after
this, especially seeing that the doctor himself is
bald, so you apply the remedy (tincture of
cantharides and acetic acid, most probably), which,
if it does not turn your hair grey, proves as
effectual as any of the other remedies.

But it seems that in all times ladies and
gentlemen losing their hair believed in the possibility
of a remedy, and where there was a demand
there was, of course, a supply. The Ediths and
Rowenas of the Saxons consulted their doctors
about their hair, and so did the Julias and
Æmilias of the Romans before them. The
treatment was rather different in those days,
but probably not less successful than that of our
time. We may doubt whether the Lady Rowena
put her hair in curl-papers; we may be sure she
went to bed with her nose full of sowbread,
serenely confident that she knew how to keep
her hair on her head. "In case that a man's
hair fall off, take this same wort (sowbread),
and put it into the nostrils," says Apuleius. He
adds soon afterwards: "It also is well beneficial
for heart-ache;" possibly he might have said,
with equal truth, for "the thousand natural ills
that flesh is heir to." But, in any case, it is no
small thing to know how your hair may be made
to grow, and your heart cured of its aches, by
one and the same remedy.

But not content with acting upon the hair
indirectly through the olfactory nerves and brain,
Apuleius and the Saxon leeches occasionally
recommend local applications. They mention
especially water-wort. "If a man's hair fall off,"
they say, "take this same wort, pound it in oil,
smear then the hair therewith, it soon becometh
fast." The assertion is rather vague as regards
time, especially when we consider that the Saxons
were a patient people. We are more precise in
these days: "a month's trial will suffice to
convince the most sceptical of the infallible virtues
of the Pommade Philocome;" and "we need ask
the afflicted to buy no more than one bottle of
the oil of the Esquimaux chiefs."

Again, we read of hop-trefoil: "Also this wort
is efficacious to make either men's or women's
hair grow." On reading this, one might have a
horrible suspicion that, unless the fact is specially
mentioned, the prescription which will make a
man's hair grow will not necessarily make a
woman's hair grow. One can hardly suppose
that even mediaeval leeches would be so selfish,
so wanting in consideration to the sex, us to
study the art of restoring their own hair and that
of their male friends, while they were careless
about the hair of their sisters and their sweethearts,
to whom an unimpaired head of hair was
of infinitely greater importance. Fortunately, we
have succeeded in obtaining evidence on this
point from an old Saxon chronicler not very well
known either to the public or to professed
antiquaries. The watercress remedy prescribed by
Apuleius, is mentioned by this old Saxon
chronicler in such a way as to leave no doubt that
where any mode of treatment was recommended
for a man's hair, a woman's hair was included.
"In case that a man's hair fall off," says
Apuleius again, "take juice of the wort which one
nameth nasturtium (nasturtium officinale), and
another nameth cress; put it on the nose; the
hair shall wax (grow)." It is worth while to
remark, that in the case of this remedy, as well as
of sowbread, the action seems to be indirect.
There are, doubtless, people in existence who
would laugh at the idea of applying to the nose
a herb intended to act upon the hair. But it
must be remembered that cerebral disturbance
has a very powerful effect upon the hair,
sometimes turning it white in a single night, as in the
(doubtful) case of the Prisoner of Chillon, at
other times causing bare patches upon the
head, which, if not looked to in time, lead
eventually to total baldness. It seems therefore
most reasonable to suppose that any action
upon the brain might be expected to have an
effect upon the hair. Through the orifices of
the nose an effect may be produced upon the
olfactory nerves, which would immediately
stimulate the brain and probably make the hair grow.
The experiment is really worth trying.

To return, however, to the proof from the
Saxon chronicler that women are included when
men are spoken of, Niewand* tells the following
story:
* About 1045 A.D. Date not ascertained with
precision.

The Lady Rowena feared much that her
lovely locks of flaxen hair were falling and
becoming thin. When next she saw her father
confessor, she said unto him, having first talked
of many other things, "Father, my mind much
misgives me that my beauty is about to depart
from me."

"How so, my daughter?" said the confessor;
"methinks thy mind is not set upon heavenly
things, as it should be."

"Father, have I not confessed unto thee, and
answered all thy questions; and can I forget thy
skill in leechcraft, and in all knowledge? Oh,
father, tell me what must I do to save my hair,
thou who knowest a remedy for all things."

"There is a remedy for that, as for all other
ills; thou hast but to apply it, and thy hair is
saved."

"Tell me, tell me, father, what is it!" she