The Ephemerides contains the account of a woman who had hair from
the mons veneris which hung to the knees; it was affected with
plica polonica, as was also the other hair of the body.
Rayer saw a Piedmontese of twenty-eight, with an athletic build,
who had but little beard or hair on the trunk, but whose scalp
was covered with a most extraordinary crop. It was extremely fine
and silky, was artificially frizzled, dark brown in color, and
formed a mass nearly five feet in circumference.
Certain pathologic conditions may give rise to accidental growths
of hair. Boyer was accustomed to quote in his lectures the case
of a man who, having an inflamed tumor in the thigh, perceived
this part becoming covered in a short time with numerous long
hairs. Rayer speaks of several instances of this kind. In one the
part affected by a blister in a child of two became covered with
hair. Another instance was that of a student of medicine, who
after bathing in the sea for a length of time, and exposing
himself to the hot sun, became affected with coppery patches,
from which there sprang a growth of hair. Bricheteau, quoted by
the same authority, speaks of a woman of twenty-four, having
white skin and hair of deep black, who after a long illness
occasioned by an affection analogous to marasmus became covered,
especially on the back, breast, and abdomen, with a multitude of
small elevations similar to those which appear on exposure to
cold.
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