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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 478, 23 May 1867, Page 3

Daxgehs op Aetifici.vl Crncxoss. We should bo sorry to say anything that ■would unnecessarily disturb the peace of ladies iu their compliance with the present remarkable fashion of wearing chignons. Tt:e custom may seem very irrational to I the male half of mankind, but this objection would apply to many of the fashions bv ■which ladies consider that they adorii themselves, and so must not count for much. A more serious objection, and one more calculated to have weight with English ladies, has been started, according to i correspondent of our own, by a Eussiaa protestor, M. Lindemean. According to this authority, 76 per cent, of the false hair used tor chignons and similar purposes is infested with a parasite to which he has given the name of gregarine. The gregarinoua hair, it is said, is very like other h«ir in appearance, but on close inspection little dark brown knots are seen at the free end of tlie hair, and may even be distinguished by the naked eye. These are gregarincs. These parasites have a most ignoble ancestry and habitation, being found iu the in' terior of tha jjedicalus cipifis. It is only due to them, however, that these statements should be verified by other observers belore -we give all the particulars of (heir natural history. They are not easily destroyed. They resist the effects of drying and even boiling. Acids, alkalies, ether, and other agents would kill them ; but! these would be injurious to the hair, and eo cannot be used. According to the authority quoted, in tho conditions cf a ballroom the gregarines ‘ revive, grow and multiply by dividing into many parts—so called germ globules ; these fly about the ball-room in millions, get inhaled, drop ou the refreshments—in tact, enter the interior of people by hundreds of ways, and thus reach their specific gregarian development.” We do not answer for the truth of all this nature! history ; but when the natural history of chicnons themselves is considered, it may w. 1! be nil true. In Kussis (lie hair of them is supplied by tire-j poorer people, especially peasant women of! the Mordwiucs and the Burlakcs, near the Volga, who do a large trade in it. " When the burlake goes out to work in the spring, he perhaps puts a clean shirt on, but he decidedly never takes it off until he returns home in autumn.” Verily, as the professor argues, here is a fine chance for parasites. \v e must leave the subject with Jadi-s and naturalists. Half the awful posjit'ihties of the fashion—which it does net require a microscopist to suggest — would deter men. We cannot so certainly reckon upon affecting ladies in a matter of fashion. But, of ail false tilings, one cf (he most objectionable false hair. Lancet.