HAI-PHONG, a seaport of Tongking, French Indo-China, on the Cua-Cam, a branch of the Song-koi (Red river) delta. The population numbers between 21,000 and 22,000, of whom 12,500 are Annamese, 7500 Chinese (attracted by the rice trade of the port) and 1200 Europeans. It is situated about 20 m. from the Gulf of Tongking and 58 m. E. by S. of Hanoi, with which it communicates by river and canal and by railway. It is the second commercial port of French Indo-China, is a naval station, and has government and private ship-building yards. The harbour is accessible at all times to vessels drawing 19 to 20 ft., but is obstructed by a bar. Hai-phong is the seat of a resident who performs the functions of mayor, and the residency is the chief building of the town. A civil tribunal, a tribunal of commerce and a branch of the Bank of Indo-China are also among its institutions. It is the headquarters of the river steamboat service (Messageries fluviales) of Tongking, which plies as far as Lao-kay on the Song-koi, to the other chief towns of Tongking and northern Annam, and also to Hong-kong. Cotton-spinning and the manufacture of cement are carried on.
HAIR (a word common to Teutonic languages), the general term for the characteristic outgrowth of the epidermis forming the coat of mammals. The word is also applied by analogy to the filamentous outgrowths from the body of insects, &c., plants, and metaphorically to anything of like appearance.
For anatomy, &c. of animal hair see [Skin and Exoskeleton]; [Fibres] and allied articles; [Fur], and [Leather].
Anthropology.—The human hair has an important place among the physical criteria of race. While its general structure and quantity vary comparatively little, its length in individuals and relatively in the two sexes, its form, its colour, its general consistency and the appearance under the microscope of its transverse section show persistent differences in the various races. It is the persistence of these differences and specially in regard to its colour and texture, which has given to hair its ethnological importance. So obvious a racial differentiation had naturally long ago attracted the attention of anthropologists. But it was not until the 19th century that microscopic examination showed the profound difference in structure between the hair characteristic of the great divisions of mankind. It was in 1863 that Dr Pruner-Bey read a paper before the Paris Anthropological Society entitled “On the Human Hair as a Race Character, examined by aid of the Microscope.” This address established the importance of hair as a racial criterion. He demonstrated that the structure of the hair is threefold:—
(1) Short and crisp, generally termed “woolly,” elliptical or kidney-shaped in section, with no distinguishable medulla or pith. Its colour is almost always jet black, and it is characteristic of all the black races except the Australians and aborigines of India. This type of hair has two varieties. When the hairs are relatively long and the spiral of the curls large, the head has the appearance of being completely covered, as with some of the Melanesian races and most of the negroes. Haeckel has called this “eriocomous” or “woolly” proper. In some negroid peoples, however, such as the Hottentots and Bushmen, the hair grows in very short curls with narrow spirals and forms little tufts separated by spaces which appear bare. The head looks as if it were dotted over with pepper-seed, and thus this hair has gained the name of “peppercorn-growth.” Haeckel has called it “lophocomous” or “crested.” Most negroes have this type of hair in childhood and, even when fully grown, signs of it around the temples. The space between each tuft is not bald, as was at one time generally assumed. The hair grows uniformly over the head, as in all races.
2. Straight, lank, long and coarse, round or nearly so in section, with the medulla or pith easily distinguishable, and almost without exception black. This is the hair of the yellow races, the Chinese, Mongols and Indians of the Americas.
3. Wavy and curly, or smooth and silky, oval in section, with medullary tube but no pith. This is the hair of Europeans, and is mainly fair, though black, brown, red or towy varieties are found.