---- will soon improve, for her hair is getting smooth;
and I always notice that our patients get better whenever their hair
ceases to be rough and unmanageable."
Dr. Browne attributes the persistently rough condition of the hair in many
insane patients, in part to their minds being always somewhat disturbed,
and in part to the effects of habit,--that is, to the hair being
frequently and strongly erected during their many recurrent paroxysms.
In patients in whom the bristling of the hair is extreme, the disease
is generally permanent and mortal; but in others, in whom the bristling
is moderate, as soon as they recover their health of mind the hair
recovers its smoothness.
[20] Quoted by Dr. Maudsley, `Body and Mind,' 1870, p. 41.
In a previous chapter we have seen that with animals the hairs are
erected by the contraction of minute, unstriped, and involuntary muscles,
which run to each separate follicle. In addition to this action,
Mr. J. Wood has clearly ascertained by experiment, as he informs me,
that with man the hairs on the front of the head which slope forwards,
and those on the back which slope backwards, are raised in opposite
directions by the contraction of the occipito-frontalis or scalp muscle.
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