The reason why : $b a careful collection of many hundreds of reasons for things which, though generally believed, are imperfectly understood. A book of condensed scientific knowledge for the million
John Stuart Mill · en
But why is man's head thus covered with hair? For precisely the
same reason that a house is thatched--to keep the inmates warm.
We might add, also, to give beauty to the edifice. But as beauty
is a conventional quality--and if men were without it they would
consider themselves quite as handsome as they do now--we will not
enlarge upon the argument. Our bald-headed friends, too, might
have reason to complain of such a partial hypothesis. The brain
is the great organ upon which the health, the welfare, and the
happiness of the system depends. The skull, therefore, may be
regarded as analogous to the "strong box," the iron chest in which
the merchant keeps his treasure. There is no point at which the
brain can be touched to its injury, without first doing violence
to the skull. Even the spinal cord runs down the back through a
tunnel or tube, formed in a number of strong bones, so closely
and firmly jointed together, that they are commonly termed "the
back-bone."
Look at the eyebrows. What purpose do they fulfil? Precisely that
of a shed, or arch placed over a window to shelter it from rain.
But for the eyebrows the perspiration would frequently run from
the brow into the eyes, and obscure the sight; a man walking in a
shower of rain would scarcely be able to see; and a mariner in a
storm would find a double difficulty in braving the tempest.
Now we come to the eye, which is the window of the Soul's abode.
And what a window! how curiously constructed! how wisely guarded!
In the eyelashes, as well as the eyebrows, we see the hair
fulfilling a useful purpose, differing from any already described.
The eyelashes serve to keep cold winds, dust, and too bright
sun, from injuring or entering the windows of the body. When we
walk against the east wind, we bring the tips of our eyelashes
together, and in that way exclude the cold air from the surface
of the eye; and in the same manner we exclude the dust and modify
the light. The eyelashes, therefore, are like so many sentries,
constantly moving to and fro, protecting a most important organ
from injury. The eyelids are the shutters by which the windows
are opened and closed. But they also cleanse the eye, keeping it
bright and moist. There are, moreover, in the lids of each eye
or window, little glands, or springs, by which a clear fluid is
formed and supplied for cleansing the eye. The eye is placed in a
socket of the skull, in which it has free motion, turning right
or left, up or down, to serve the purpose of the inhabitant of
the dwelling. Of the structure of the eye itself we will not say
much, for the engravings will afford a clearer understanding than
a lengthy written description. But we would have you examine the
formation of the iris of the living eye, the ring which surrounds