-------
A QUAINT old Latin author asks, “What is a Beard? Hair? and what is
Hair? a Beard?” Perhaps a Beard may be defined more clearly by stating,
that in its full extent it comprehends all hair visible on the
countenance below the eyes, naturally growing down the sides of the
face, crossing the cheeks by an inverted arch, fringing the upper and
lower lips, covering the chin above and below, and hanging down in front
of the neck and throat:—moustaches and whiskers being merely parts of a
general whole. The hair of the head differs from that of the Beard. In
an enlarged microscopical view, the former is seen to resemble a
flattened cylinder, tapering off towards the extremity. It has a rough
outer bark, and a finer inner coat; and contains, like a plant, its
central pith, consisting of oil and coloring matters. At the lower part
it is bulbous, and the pith vessels rest on a large vesicle. The bulb is
enclosed in a fold of the skin, and imbedded in the sebaceous glands.
The root is usually inserted obliquely to the surface. Avoiding further
detail, let me at once direct your attention to the circumstance, that
whereas the hair of the head is only furnished with one pith tube, that
of the Beard, is provided with two.[1] Is not this a striking fact to
commence with? and does it not at once suggest that this extra provision
must have a special purpose? It has, as we shall presently see; and only
now add, that the hairs of the Beard are more deeply inserted and more
durable; flatter, and hence more disposed to curl.
Footnote 1:
Vide Hassell’s Microscopic Anatomy. Haller says “Withof calculated
that the hair of the Beard grows at the rate of 1½ line in the week,
which is 6½ inches in the year, and by the time a man reaches eighty,
27 feet will have fallen under the edge of the razor.”
As the Beard makes its appearance simultaneously with one of the most
important natural changes in man’s constitution, it has in all ages been
regarded as the ensign of manliness. All the leading races of men,
whether of warm or cold climates, who have stamped their character on
history—Egyptians, Indians, Jews, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians,
Arabs, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Turks, Scandinavians, Sclaves—were
furnished with an abundant growth of this natural covering. Their
enterprizes were accordingly distinguished by a corresponding vigour and
daring. The fact, too, is indisputable, that their hardiest efforts were
cotemporaneous with the existence of their Beards; and a closer
investigation would show that the rise and fall of this natural feature
has had more influence on the progress and decline of nations, than has
hitherto been suspected. Though there are _individual_ exceptions, the
absence of Beard is usually a sign of physical and moral weakness; and
in degenerate tribes wholly without, or very deficient, there is a
conscious want of manly dignity, and contentedness with a low physical,
moral, and intellectual condition. Such tribes have to be sought for by
the physiologist and ethnologist; the _historian_ is never called upon
to do honor to their deeds. Nor is it without significance that the
effeminate Chinese have signalized their present attempt to become once
more free men, instead of tartar tools—by a formal resolve to have done
with pigtails, and let their hair take its natural course over head and
chin.[2]
Footnote 2:
The whiskers of Confucius are said to be preserved as relics in China.
But the hair does not merely act as an external sign; it has, or it
would not be there, its own proper and distinct functions to perform.
The most important of these is the protection of some of the most
susceptible portions of our frame from cold and moisture—those fruitful
sources of painful, and often fatal, disease. And what more admirable
contrivance could be thought of for this purpose than a free and
graceful veil of hair—a substance possessing the important properties of
power to repel moisture, and to serve as a non-conductor of heat and
electricity.
Let me now show you what lies underneath the surface naturally covered
by the Beard. We have first that ganglion or knot, the seat of the
exquisitely painful affection tic doloureux. From it you will perceive
white threads of nerves radiating to the jaws precisely in the line
protected by the Beard. As you contemplate it, you can hardly fail to be
struck with the fact, that in shaving may sometimes originate that local
paralysis which disfigures the corners of the mouth. Next we have the
nerves of the teeth, which all know to be so affected by changes of
temperature.
Glance now, if you please, at those glands which secrete and elaborate
the lymph which is to form part of the circulating fluid, and in which
scrofula often has its origin, and some say its name. They are
peculiarly liable to be affected by cold and moisture, presenting then
those well-known unsightly swellings about the neck: they therefore
receive an extra protection, the hair usually growing much more thickly
on the parts where they are met with than elsewhere.
There are another set of glands, the sebaceous, which are thickly
concentrated on the chin. Now shaving is the cause that the hairs on
this part are liable to a peculiar and very irritating disease, which
imparts a kind of foretaste of purgatory to many unfortunate victims of
that unnatural practice. Those with strong beards most righteously
suffer the most; for the more efficient the natural protection is, the
greater is also the folly of its removal.
Lastly, there are the tonsils, and the glands of the throat and larynx.
Few require to be told how common at present are acute and chronic
affections of these parts.
That the Beard was intended as a protection to the whole of them, any
one may satisfy himself by wearing it and then shaving it off in cold or
damp weather. If not inclined to try this experiment, and mind I do not
recommend it, perhaps the following evidence will be sufficiently
convincing. Firstly, the historical fact that the Russian soldiers, when
compelled to shave by Peter the Great, suffered most severely. Secondly,
the medical testimony extracted from the Professional Dictionary of Dr.
Copeland, one of the first Physicians of the day, where it is stated,
“Persons in the habit of wearing long Beards, have often been affected
with rheumatic pains in the face, or with sore throat on shaving them
off. In several cases of chronic sore throat, wearing the Beard under
the chin, or upon the throat, has prevented a return of the complaint.”
Thirdly, the fact that several persons in this town (Ipswich) have been
so cured. And lastly, this brief but important testimony of the men of
the Scottish Central Railway, dated Perth, 24th August, 1853.
“We, the servants of the Scottish Central Railway, beg to inform
you, that having last summer seen a circular recommending the
men employed upon railways to cultivate the growth of their
Beards, as the best protection against the inclemency of the
weather, have been induced to follow this advice; and the
benefit we have derived from it, induces us to recommend it to
the general adoption of our brothers in similar circumstances
throughout the kingdom. We can assure them, from our own
experience, that they will by this means be saved from the bad
colds and sore throats of such frequent occurrence without this
natural protection.”
Signed by 5 Guards, 1 Inspector of Police,
2 Engine Men, and 1 Fireman.
Let us next see, for it is a highly interesting point in a
consumption-breeding climate like ours, where thousands of victims
annually die, _how_ the entrances to the air passages and lungs are
protected by the upper part of the beard—the moustache. We draw air in
commonly through the nose, and breathe it out through the mouth: though
occasionally the two passages exchange functions. In a section of the
nose, the interior of the nostril is seen to communicate, by a slightly
curved passage, with the back entrance to the mouth and throat. Now as
the incoming air must follow the direction of the draught, you will
readily perceive that any air entering by the nostrils must pass through
or over the hair of the moustache, and be warmed in the passage: and
when the air makes its way by the mouth, it must pass under the
moustache and be warmed, like that under the eaves of a thatched roof.
The moustache, however, not merely warms the inspired air, but filters
it from superfluous moisture, dirt, dust, and smoke; and soon we trust
it will be deemed as rational to deprive the upper lip of its protecting
fringe, as to shave the eyebrows or pluck out the eyelashes.[3]
Footnote 3:
I can from personal experience state, that being subject when younger
to swelling of the upper lip from cold, previous to entering
Switzerland I allowed my moustache to grow. During six weeks excursion
on foot, exposed to all weathers and stopping for none, being at one
moment in warm valleys and a few hours afterwards at the top of
ice-clad mountains, I never felt the least uncomfortableness about the
mouth. When on returning home, however, I was foolish enough to shave,
I paid dearly for the operation.
Those to whom the extent of preventible disease among our
artizans—disease arising solely from their employments is unknown, I
must refer to Mr. Thackrah’s book on that specific subject. Scientific
ingenuity had long attempted to devise contrivances to relieve the men
from some of these diseases; but the schemes were found too cumbrous, or
otherwise impracticable. As so often happens, what _men_ were profoundly
searching for, _nature_ had placed directly under their noses. Mr.
Chadwick, to whom the public are indebted for much valuable information
on questions connected with the public health, and Dr. Alison, of
Glasgow, one of whom had seen the particles of iron settling on and
staining the Beards of foreign smiths; and the other had noticed the
dusty Beards of foreign masons when at work, were led to the conclusion,
independently of each other, that the iron and stone dust were much
better deposited on the Beard (whence they could be washed), than in the
lungs, where they would be sure to cause disease. The lungs of a mason
for instance are preserved in Edinburgh, which are one concrete mass of
stone. These gentlemen published their convictions; and through the
beneficial agency of the press, that information, aided by papers in the
“Builder,” and in “Dickens’s Household Words,” soon found its way to our
artizans, many of whom have tried the experiment, and borne testimony to
its satisfactory results. At this juncture, let us also hope that the
reiterated opinions of eminent Army Surgeons will at length be listened
to, and the British Soldier be freed from the apoplectic leathern stock,
and allowed to wear that protection which nature endowed him with. To
the latter the most rigid economist cannot object, since it will add
nothing to the estimates, while it will enable the soldier to offer, if
not a bolder, at least a more formidable front, to the foe, and save him
from many of the hazards of the march in which more die than on the
field of battle!
Though the subject has as yet received too little scientific attention,
there can be no doubt that the hair generally has a further important
function to perform in regulating the electricity which is so intimately
connected with the condition of the nerves.
I have reserved to the last the curious fact, which in itself is
perfectly conclusive as to the protecting office of the Beard, and
explains why its hair has additional provision for its nourishment; and
this fact is, that while the hair of the head usually falls off with the
approach of age, that of the Beard, on the contrary, continues to _grow_
and _thicken_ to the latest period of life. He must be indeed insensible
to all evidence of design, who does not acknowledge in this a wise and
beneficent provision, especially when he connects with it the other
well-known fact, that the skull becomes denser, and the brain less
sensitive, while the parts shielded by the Beard are more susceptible
than ever, and have less vitality to contend with prejudicial
influences.
Before proceeding further it may be as well briefly to answer the
question, why, if Beards be so necessary for men, women have no
provision of the kind? The reason I take to be this, that they are
women, and were consequently never intended to be exposed to the
hardships and difficulties men are called upon to undergo. Woman was
made a help meet for man, and it was designed that man should in return,
protect her to the utmost of his power from those external circumstances
which it is his duty boldly to encounter. Her hair grows naturally
longer, and in the savage state she is accustomed to let it fall over
the neck and shoulders. The ancient Athenian and Lombard women are even
said to have accompanied their husbands to the battle-field with their
hair so arranged as to imitate the Beard. In more civilized society,
various contrivances are resorted to by the gentler sex for protection,
which would be utterly unsuitable to the sterner. In saying this I do
not include the present absurd bonnet, which seems purposely contrived
to expose rather than shield the fair, and to excite our pity and cause
us to tremble while we cannot but admire!
Two curious exceptional cases of bearded women must not be passed over;
one, that of a female soldier in the army of Charles XII, who was taken
at the battle of Pultowa, where she had fought with a courage worthy of
her Beard: the other, that of Margaret of Parma, the celebrated Regent
of the Netherlands, who conceived that her Beard imparted such dignity
to her appearance, that she would never allow a hair of it to be
touched.
[Illustration]
------------------------------------------------------------------------