WIES'ELBURG, a co. in w. Hungary, drained by the Danube, Rabnitz, and Leitha rivers; 730 sq.m.; pop. '70, 75,846. Capital, Ungarisch-Altenburg.
WIG (Lat. pilus, the hair; pilare, to i pluck' off the hair; from which was formed piluccare, and hence pilucca, a head of hair; this was transformed in Ital. into perruca, Fr. perrugue, whence Eng. periwig, shortened into wig). The use of false hair for conceal ing baldness, or for the supposed adornment of the head, appears to belong to all ages and countries. There is an Egyptian wig in the British museum, supposed to be about 4,000 years old ; and some of the South sea islanders are said to be skillful wig-makers. Xenophon mentions that Astyages wore an immense wig. Several of the Roman emperors wore wigs, and Lampridius relates that the wig of the emperor Commodus was highly per fumed, and sprinkled with gold dust. After this there are no historical traces of the wig till about the end of the 14th c., when wigs made their appearance in France, and
hence spread gradually over other European countries. The fashion of wearing wigs set in strong in the reign of Louis XIII. (1610-43), and for more than a century no gentleman of fashion could appear without one. Such was the extravagance in thin article of dress that as much as three guineas an ounce was paid in England for fine qualities of hair, and wigs were made at a cost of £140. In was only toward the end of the 18th c. that the unnaturalness of this ornament appears to have been thought of, and it began to be superseded by the queue with hair-powder (q.v.). Except by judges barristers, wigs are now used only in cases of baldness, and then they are made in Imi tation of nature, which was by no means the case with the wigs of old times.