industrious, according to the measure of ladies'
ornamental knick-knackery industry, she
learns the art of hair-working, and produces a
bracelet made from a portion of her own hair.

An act of justice, however, must be done
here. Ladies, in recent years, when time
begins to do its work upon their hair, have
the good sense to let nature alone; they more
frequently than formerly abjure false ringlets,
as well as the Inestimable Restorative Specifics
which every perfumer sells for dyeing the
hair a resplendent black or brown. We must
whisper that in all colouring agents the chief
ingredient is nitrate of silver; which,
combining with certain chemicals already in the
hair, becomes sulphuret of silver. The result,
therefore, is not always certain. Black is
generally produced; but instances have been
known of the affrighted dyer finding her hair
vying in tint with the violet or the cabbage.
It may or may not be that ladies recognise the
physiological fact, that "the grey hair of age
and debility in the human subject results from
a withdrawal of the pigment cells;" or that
the non-appearance of baldness in women is
mainly due to "the larger deposit of fat in
the female scalp, which allows of a freer
circulation in the capillaries of the skin;" or
that "the blood is the only Macassar of the
hair— the only oil which can, in truth, be
said to insinuate its balsamic properties into
the pores of the head." It may, or may not,
be that they know these things; but they act
upon a very simple and intelligible maxim,
that as grey hair generally comes when it is
right and proper that it should come, there
is no reason to be ashamed of it. Nor need
fading beauty be wholly dependent upon
artifice. Nature will aid her. She makes
severed fingers grow again if joined in time,
and why not new hair whence old hair has
departed? "Hairs may be transplanted,
and, it is said, will grow after such
transplantation, in consequence of the adhesions
and organic connection established between
them and the adjacent tissues; a fact of
which practical advantage might be taken,"
adds cautious Mr. Hassel,* "if correct."

* "Microscopic Anatomy of the Human body."

Nevertheless, so long as men will wear
wigs and perukes, and so long as ladies will
indulge in false ringlets and in hair jewellery,
there must of necessity arise a market for
the sale and purchase of hair, a commercial
system, a price varying with all the relations
in supply and demand; and it may possibly
be that only a small number of persons are
really aware of the extent and the curious
nature of this traffic. A writer on the hair,
in the Quarterly Review, a few months ago,
appears to have ascertained that there is no
less a quantity than five tons of human hair
imported from foreign countries into England
in a year; applicable, as we must suppose,
mainly to the perruquier's art, though there
may be modes of employment which we
wot not of. This hair is dependent on its
colour for its marketable value; and the
colour depends in some degree on geographical
position. The light-haired races of
mankind are mostly found north of the parallel
of forty-eight degrees; comprising, so far as
Europe is concerned, England, Belgium, North
Germany, a large portion of Russia, and the
Scandinavian countries. The black-haired
races of the sunny south cease about forty-five
degrees; while between forty-five and forty-
eight degrees there is a sort of debatable
land of brown hair. There are many exceptions
to these limits, it is true; for the Celtic
raoe in Ireland, and the Norman race in
France, have black hair in spite of their
northern position; while the golden beauty
of Venetian hair is strikingly in contrast
with the raven blackness of the hair in most
of the countries bordering on the Mediterranean.
Nevertheless, the general rule is
sufficiently near correctness to have significance
in the eye of a hair-dealer. The brown hair
of middle Europe seems to be a kind of
neutral tint; naturally resulting from the
admixture of the flaxen-haired races of the
north with the black-haired population of the
south. As to the substance, and structure,
and chemical nature of the hair, there
appears to be very little difference between
it and the skin, or between the skin and horn,
or between horn and scales, or between scales
and feathers; indeed, all the five are mere
modifications of the same thing. A lady
would hear with astonishment that her bird,
when he sets right some erring feather with
his beak, is acting with the same chemically
composed instrument, upon the same
chemically composed material as Mademoiselle acts
when she disentangles with a comb her charming
mistress's softly-flowing tresses. Few
things in nature are less perishable than hair
after removal from the body. Hair shut up
for thousands of years has been taken out of
Egyptian tombs in perfect preservation
both of strength and colour. It is not
so durable, however, during life. "It is
generally stated as an undoubted fact," Mr.
Hassell remarks, "that the hair may become
white, or turn colourless, under the influence
of strong depressing mental emotions, in the
course of a single night. This singular
change, if it does ever occur in the short
space of time referred to, can only be the
result of the transmission of a fluid possessing
strong bleaching properties along the entire
length of the hair, and which is secreted
in certain peculiar states of the mind."

The market of human hair would be very
insufficiently supplied if it depended solely
on chance clippings. There must be a regular
harvest, which can be looked forward to
at a particular time. And as there are
different markets for black tea and green tea,
for black pepper and white pepper, for brown
brandy and pale brandy,—so is there a light-
hair market distinct from the dark-hair