FINGERNAIL GROWTH
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I cannot find a good answer to the question: how long does it take 
nails to grow? And, how much faster do they grow on the fingers? My 
old "rules of thumb" were:
	Fingernails:           6-8 months to grow out fully
	Thumbnails             8-12 months to grow out fully
	Small toenails         12 months to grow out fully
	Great toenails         12-18 months to grow out fully
I cannot find these answers in any Nail book (and I have 5 of them!)

Jerry Litt
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William B. Bean studied his own nail growth for 35 years and published 
the data in Arch Intern Med, 1974, Vol. 134, 497-502 (30 yrs) and ibid, 
1980, Vol. 140, p. 73-76 (35 yrs).  He found that nails grow more slowly 
with age; growth rate at age 32 was 0.123mm/day, but by age 67 had decreased 
to0.095mm/day.  No variation with geographical location, physical activity, 
or season.

Dan Mitchell, MD
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 A propos your reference, who was it who found that his beard 
hair grew more quickly just before going on leave from his service 
duty to a location with many females during or just after the war?  
Was it Dr. Bean who published this data as well?    Does our beard 
hair grow more slowly as we approach retirement?  

Elliot Puritz
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Thumb nails grow faster then the rest of the fingernails.  Great toe nails
grow faster then other toenails.  Toe nails grow slower then fingernails.
Look in Soter's pathogenesis of skin disease (book).  There is an original
diagram of a dermatologist's grow chart of his own nails over the course
of his life.  Dick Scher of "dialogues in dermatology" fame, here at
Columbia, is a nail expert who you may wish to contact (I don't think he
is on the WWW).

Martin Reichel
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