BEARD, the hair on the chin, cheeks and upper lip of men. It differs from the hair on the head by its greater hardness and its form. The beard begins to grow at the time of pu berty. The connection between the beard and puberty is evident from this, among other cir cumstances, that it never grows in the case of eunuchs who have been such from childhood; but the castration of adults does not cause the loss of the beard. According to Caesar, the Germans thought, and perhaps justly, the late growth of the beard favorable to the develop ment of all the powers. But there are cases in which this circumstance is an indication of feebleness. It frequently takes place in men of tender constitutum, whose le color indi cates little power. The beards of different nations afford an interesting study. Some have hardly any, others a great profusion. The lat ter generally consider it as a great ornament; the former pluck it out; as, for instance, the American Indians. The character of the beard differs with that of the individual, and, in the case of nations, varies with the climate, food, etc. Thus the beard is generally dark, dry, hard and thin in irritable persons of full age; the same is the case with the inhabitants of hot and dry countries, as the Arabians, Ethiopians, East Indians, Italians, Spaniards. But persons of very mild disposition have a light-colored, thick and slightly curling beard; the same is the case with inhabitants of cold and humid countries, as Holland, Britain, Sweden. The difference of circtunstances causes all shades of variety. The nature of the nourishment likewise causes a great variety in the beard. Wholesome, nutritious and digestible food makes the beard soft; but poor, dry and in digestible food renders it hard and bristly.
In general the beard has been considered with all nations as an ornament and often as a mark of the sage and the priest. Moses for bade the Jews to shave their beards. With the ancient Germans the cutting off another's beard was a high offense: with the East In dians it is severely punished. Even now the beard is regarded as a mark of great dignity among many nations in the East, as the Turks. The custom of shaving is said to have come into use in modern times during the reigns of Louis XIII and XIV of France, both of whom ascended the throne without a beard. Courtiers
and inhabitants of cities then began to shave, in order to look like the king, and as France soon took the lead in all matters of fashion on the Continent of Europe, shaving became gen eral; but it was only from the beginning of the 18th century that shaving off the whole beard became common.
The English clergy by and by, probably in imitation of those of western Europe, began to shave the beard and until the time of William the Norman, the whole of whose army shaved the beard, there prevailed a bearded class and a shaven class, in short, a laity and a clergy, in England. In forbidding the clergy to wear beards Gregory VII (1084) appealed to the custom of antiquity. The higher classes in dulged in the moustache, or the entire beard, from the reign of Edward III down to the 17th century. :The beard then gradually de clined and the court of Charles I was the last in which even a small one was cherished. Shaving, among many ancient nations, was the mark of mourning; with others it was the con trary. Plutarch says that Alexander introduced shaving among the Greeks by ordering his sol diers to cut off their beards; but it appears that this custom had prevailed before among the Macedonians. The Romans began to shave about 296 B.C., when a certain Ticinius Mena, a barber from Sicily, introduced this fashion. Scipio Africanus was the first who shaved ev ery diy. The day that a young man first shaved was celebrated and the first hair cut off was sacrificed to a deity. Hadrian, in order to cover some large warts on his chin, renewed the fashion of long beards; but it did not last long. In mourning the Romans wore a long beard, sometimes for years. They used scis sors, razors, tweezers, etc., to remove the beard. The public barbers' shops (tonstrina.), where the lower classes went, were much re sorted to; rich people kept a shaver (tonsor) among their slaves. Army regulations gener ally prohibit the wearing of beards, while in the navy beards are permitted. Physicians sug gest that the beard should be suffered to grow on the chin and throat where tendendes to throat disease exist.