Sexualism and Hair Growth.--The growth or development of the hair may be accelerated by the state of the organs of generation. This is peculiarly noticeable in the pubic hairs and the beard, and is fully exemplified in the section on precocious development (Chapter VII); however, Moreau de la Sarthe showed a child to the Medical Faculty of Paris in whom precocious development of the testicles had influenced that of the hair to such a degree that, at the age of six, the chest of this boy was as thickly set with hair as is usually seen in adults. It is well known that eunuchs often lose a great part of their beards, and after removal of the ovaries women are seen to develop an extra quantity of hair.
Gerberon tells of an infant with a beard, and Paullini and the Ephemerides mention similar instances.
Bearded women are not at all infrequent. Hippocrates mentions a female who grew a beard shortly after menstruation had ceased. It is a well-recognized fact that after the menopause women become more hirsute, the same being the case after removal of any of the functional generative apparatus. Vicat saw a virgin who had a beard, and Joch speaks of "foeminis barbati." Leblond says that certain women of Ethiopia and South America have beards and little or no menstruation. He also says that sterility and excessive chastity are causes of female beards, and cites the case of Schott of a young widow who secluded herself in a cloister, and soon had a beard.
Barbara Urster, who lived in the 16th century, had a beard to her girdle. The most celebrated "bearded woman" was Rosine-Marguerite Muller, who died in a hospital in Dresden in 1732, with a thick beard and heavy mustache. Julia Pastrana had her face covered with thick hair and had a full beard and mustache. She exhibited defective dentition in both jaws, and the teeth present were arranged in an irregular fashion. She had pronounced prognathism, which gave her a simian appearance. Ecker examined in 1876 a woman who died at Fribourg, whose face contained a full beard and a luxuriant mustache.
Harris reports several cases of bearded women, inmates of the Coton Hill Lunatic Asylum. One of the patients was eighty-three years of age and had been insane forty-four years following a puerperal period. She would not permit the hair on her face to be cut, and the curly white hairs had attained a length of from eight to ten inches on the chin, while on the upper lip the hairs were scarcely an inch. This patient was quite womanly in all her sentiments. The second case was a woman of thirty-six, insane from emotional melancholia. She had tufts of thick, curly hair on the chin two inches long, light yellowish in color, and a few straggling hairs on the upper lip. The third case was that of a woman of sixty-four, who exhibited a strong passion for the male ***. Her menstruation had been regular until the menopause. She plaited her beard, and it was seven or eight inches long on the chin and one inch on the lip. This woman had extremely hairy legs. Another case was that of a woman of sixty-two, who, though bald, developed a beard before the climacteric. Her structural proportions were feminine in character, and it is said that her mother, who was sane, had a beard also. A curious case was that of a woman of twenty-three (Mrs. Viola M.), who from the age of three had a considerable quantity of hair on the side of the cheek which eventually became a full beard. She was quite feminine was free from excessive hair elsewhere, her nose and forehead being singularly bare. Her voice was very sweet; she was married at seventeen and a half, having two normal children, and nursed each for one month. "The bearded woman" of every circus side-show is an evidence of the curious interest in which these women are held. The accompanying illustration is a representation of a "bearded woman" born in Bracken County, Ky. Her beard measured 15 inches in length.
There is a class of anomalies in which there is an exaggerated development of hair. We would naturally expect to find the primitive peoples, who are not provided with artificial protection against the wind, supplied with an extra quantity of hair or having a hairy coat like animals; but this is sometimes found among civilized people. This abnormal presence of hair on the human body has been known for many years; the description of Esau in the Bible is an early instance. Aldrovandus says that in the sixteenth century there came to the Canary Islands a family consisting of a father, son, and two daughters, who were covered all over their bodies by long hair, and their portrait, certainly reproduced from life, resembles the modern instances of "dog men."In 1883 there was shown in England and France, afterward in America, a girl of seven named "Krao," a native of Indo-China.
The whole body of this child was covered with black hair. Her face was of the prognathic type, and this, with her extraordinary prehensile powers of feet and lips, gave her the title of "Darwin's missing link." In 1875 there was exhibited in Paris, under the name of "l'homme-chien" Adrien Jeftichew, a Russian peasant of fifty-five, whose face, head, back, and limbs were covered with a brown hairy coat looking like wool and several centimeters long. The other parts of the body were also covered with hair, but less abundantly. This individual had a son of three, Theodore, who was hairy like himself.
A family living in Burmah (Shive-Maon, whose history is told by Crawford and Yule), consisting of a father, a daughter, and a granddaughter, were nearly covered with hair. Figure 84represents a somewhat similar family who were exhibited in this country.