[Footnote 1: Abstract of a paper read before the Pennsylvania State
Medical Society, at Norristown, May 10, 1883.--_N.Y. Med. Jour._]

By JOHN V. SHOEMAKER, A.M., M.D., Physician to the Philadelphia
Hospital for Skin Diseases.


The object of this paper is to briefly describe the hair and its
important functions, and to suggest the proper manner of preserving it
in a healthy state.

I know full well that much has been written upon this useful part of
the human economy, but the constant increase of bald heads and
beardless faces, notwithstanding all our modern advancement in the
application of remedies to the cure of disease, prompts me to point
out to you the many ways of retaining, without medication, the hair,
which is a defense, ornamentation, and adornment to the human body.

[Dr. Shoemaker here gave an interesting history of the growth and
development of the hair and its uses, which we are compelled to omit.
Then, proceeding, he said:] Now, the hair, which fulfills such an
important function in the adornment and health of the body, requires
both constitutional and local care to keep it in its normal, healthy
state. When I say constitutional care, I mean that the various organs
of the body that assist in nourishing and sustaining the hair-forming
apparatus should, by judicious diet, exercise, and attention to the
nervous system, be kept healthy and sound, in order that they in turn
may assist in preserving the hairs in a vigorous condition.

In the first place, that essential material, food, which is necessary