Anomalies and Curiosities of MedicineGould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Science
Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
Gould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Abnormalities, Human; Medicine -- Anecdotes
De Schweinitz speaks of a well-formed and healthy brunette of eighteen
in whom the middle portion of the cilia of the right upper eyelid and a
number of the hairs of the lower lid turned white in a week. Both eyes
were myopic, but no other cause could be assigned. Another similar case
is cited by Hirshberg, and the authors have seen similar cases.
Thornton of Margate records the case of a lady in whom the hair of the
left eyebrow and eyelashes began to turn white after a fortnight of
sudden grief, and within a week all the hair of these regions was quite
white and remained so. No other part was affected nor was there any
other symptom. After a traumatic ophthalmitis of the left and
sympathetic inflammation of the right eye in a boy of nine, Schenck
observed that a group of cilia of the right upper lid and nearly all
the lashes of the upper lid of the left eye, which had been enucleated,
turned silvery-white in a short time. Ludwig has known the eyelashes to
become white after small-pox. Communications are also on record of
local decolorization of the eyebrows and lashes in neuralgias of
isolated branches of the trigeminus, especially of the supraorbital
nerve.
Temporary and Partial Canities.--Of special interest are those cases in
which whiteness of the hair is only temporary. Thus, Compagne mentions
a case in which the black hair of a woman of thirty-six began to fade
on the twenty-third day of a malignant fever, and on the sixth day
following was perfectly white, but on the seventh day the hairs became
darker again, and on the fourteenth day after the change they had
become as black as they were originally. Wilson records a case in which
the hair lost its color in winter and regained it in summer. Sir John
Forbes, according to Crocker, had gray hair for a long time, then
suddenly it all turned white, and after remaining so for a year it
returned to its original gray.
Grayness of the hair is sometimes only partial. According to Crocker an
adult whose hair was generally brown had a tuft of white hair over the
temple, and several like cases are on record. Lorry tells us that
grayness of one side only is sometimes occasioned by severe headache.
Hagedorn has known the beard to be black in one place and white in
another. Brandis mentions the hair becoming white on one side of the
face while it continued of its former color on the other. Rayer quotes
cases of canities of the whole of one side of the body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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