Mechanical injury to the great-toe nail is of very common occurrence. The wearing of shoes that are too short, and especially of those which have at the same time high heels, in consequence of which the weight of the body is partially supported by the point of the great-toe, often restrains to such a degree the growth of its nail, while jamming the root into the socket of its matrix, as to force it to grow laterally, and either produce the very painful affection of an ingrowing nail, or abolish the power of cell-proliferation at the matrix, or perhaps accomplish both of these results simultaneously. These affections are never radically cured until, through rest and proper remedial medical measures, the normal function of nail-growth is restored, and this, in the case of the complete abolishment of cell-formation at the matrix, it is impossible to restore, and the sufferer remains, through thickening of the nail without any forward progress of it, more or less of a cripple all through life. The reader can understand, upon the basis of information previously conveyed here, that this condition must supervene from serious injury to the matrix. Because the capacity of the matrix to generate cells and push the nail forward is abolished, that does not affect the capacity of the mucous layer of the scarf-skin and the corium beneath the nail to go on indefinitely increasing it in thickness. Under the circumstances supposed, the nail grows from below, layer by layer in thickness, until it makes an enormous mass, becoming thus an essentially foreign body, so large and painful as to forbid the wearing of an ordinary shoe. Sometimes one of these enormous masses is shed, sometimes one of them requires surgical interference for its removal. Some diseases of the great-toe nail necessitate its extirpation. We knew an old lady who suffered during the latter years of her life the greatest torture from her feet, the condition of which was not known until her demise, when it was discovered that the thickness of her great-toe nails was enormous.

These huge masses of nail, of which, of course, the topmost layer is the oldest, and sometimes truly ancient, are yellow, lustreless, friable, like pieces of refuse horn. Dr. Erasmus Wilson says, in his chapter on the nails, in his admirable little work on the skin and hair :

I know an instance in which the nail is regularly shed; whenever the old one falls off, a new one being found beneath it. Sometimes growth in length is not entirely checked, although growth in thickness is induced, and then we get some marvelous specimens of toe-nails. I have several such in my possession, one being fully two inches long.

as

The nail shares in the well- or ill- being of its possessor. In cases of long-continued depression of the general system, it, well as the hair, changes so radically in appearance as to attract the attention of the most casual observer. In lesser degree of sickness, or in that which is merely temporary, its varying con dition is significant to the more critical medical eye. In treating affections of the nail, whether they amount to marked disease or merely to depraved condition, constitutional treatment should not be neglected. This means that all hygienic measures should be adopted in food, air, exercise, etc., and, in addition, that some tonic should be prescribed.

Its

The nail is affected by, or, more precisely speaking, participates in constitutional defects of the general system. appearance in persons of pronounced consumptive diathesis is quite as characteristic as is the appearance of their teeth and hair. It is affected by acute and chronic diseases. It is also liable to its own localized diseases, whether organic or functional. Three of these, besides that already described in detail, are onychogryphosis, paronychia, and onychomycosis.

Onychogryphosis is simply an organic defect in the shape of the nail, which grows with a decided curve from front to rear, giving it the appearance of a talon. It was in view of the unsightly effect produced by this form of nail, even when existing in only slight degree, that we were led, in the chapter on the

cosmetic care and treatment of the hands, to caution persons having it, to however slight a degree, to be especially careful to keep the nails well trimmed. The truly-formed nail has no marked curvature from front to rear. It curves only from side to side, and that curve is a flattened one. Nothing can be more repulsive than the appearance of the nails of a person who, with curvature in them from front to rear, associated, as it always is, with too sharp a curve from side to side, allows them to grow beyond the end of the finger, thus producing the effect of a veritable claw. Of course, there is no possibility of rectifying the defect of this organic growth. All that any one can do is to palliate the condition, by being careful, through paring the nails, not to let its effect be intensified.

Paronychia has been, in modern usage, divided into four varieties, of which one is what is popularly known as "runround," the other three being resolvable into what are known as different stages of whitlow.

Onychomycosis is a parasitic fungous disease. When the fungus which represents the disease preys upon the nails, they lose their translucency and become laminated and brittle. Both the nail and the nail-bed are diseased through their penetration by the fungous growth, the nail, as a whole, becoming bulkier and tending to disintegrate. Of course, it will be understood that, as a general rule, the invasion of a fungus means previouslylessened resistance through imperfect functioning of the parts.

The moral of all that has been said in this chapter is, that if we would not risk a greater fall to our vanity than ever it had rise, which, although a physical impossibility, is not a moral one, let us look out for our toes.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OF THE HAIR.

HE reader may be surprised when told that the hair, as well

as the nails, is a modification of the scarf-skin. It is nevertheless true, as the human eye, aided by the microscope, proves. Attention to the following general description of the main features of the constitution and growth of the hair will be amply repaid by knowledge valuable as a protection against the charlatanism of ignorant instruction as to the care of this important adjunct of the body.

The hair on the person is distinguished, even by the naked eye, as consisting of four different varieties. The first and most important of these is the long, smooth, and pliant hair of the head. The second is the shorter and coarser hair on the face of the adult of the male sex, and, on the adults of both sexes, under the armpit and on the pubic parts. The third is the still shorter and coarser hair of the eyebrows, eyelashes, nostrils, and orifice of the ears. The fourth is the exceedingly short and fine hair, called lanugo, which, almost imperceptibly to the naked eye, covers the general surface of the body, with the exception of the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, the lips, and the mucous-membrane passages into the body. These varieties exhibit slight organic differences among themselves, as indicated by their constitution and growth, but not sufficient to invite attention here to an examination of their similarities and dissimilarities. It will be, for the information of the general reader, enough if we confine ourselves to the consideration of the character and growth of the hair of the head, as the highest type of similar products of the body.

It is from rude conceptions of material things that we rise