86 TRICHOLOGIA MAMMALIUM ; 
President Smith (in Essay on Man, p. 92,) tells of a negro whose skin, from a deep 
black, turned to a healthy white; the white color extending under the pile, where the 
woolly substance disappeared, and a fine, straight hair, of silky softness, succeeded. But 
Van Amringe thinks there must be some mistake in collecting the facts of this case; and 
we think that much allowance is to be made for one who was anxious to establish a 
favorite theory. 
Or Aruipinir.—L’Heritier says, that ‘ white or colorless hair sometimes becomes colored, 
which phenomenon he calls Athipilé; and that the assumed color is not always the same 
it was originally!” He says, that ‘sometimes this change is effected all over the scalp at 
the same time; at others it is progressive and gradual, as the black hair grows out from 
the root; so that you may see, on the same head, a hair partly white and partly colored.” 
We have never witnessed any such phenomenon, unless he alludes to the young hairs 
which grow out of the skins of old heads, of the original color of the hair, and which 
turn white, (colorless,) commencing at the point. 
Mr. Wm. H. Elsegood, of this city, sent usa lock of light brown hair, taken from his 
head, which he assures us grew upon a bald place from which his former grey hair fell, 
the skin having been stimulated by a wash of his own invention. We examined this 
new pile, and find it to be oval, with a diameter of 71, by z3z; sound and healthy. 
Or PiLe LosIne ITs coLor.—Hair sometimes loses its color suddenly, and at others 
oradually. 
Of the sudden loss of color —Fenchterstehen (in Med. Phy. Cho.) says, that as a special 
effect of grief, in excess, arises the well-known phenomepon, when the hair, more or less 
rapidly, turns grey. Lenhossek mentions the case of a philosopher who suddenly became | 
grey, wpon losing, by a storm at sea, an ancient manuscript which he had recently dis- 
covered. We have many instances (says Goldsmith) of persons who have grown grey in 
one night-time. (Hist. of Man, &c., 33.) Bichat says that he was witness to six or seven 
cases where the hair turned white in less than eight days; and in one of them, an 
acquaintance of his, turned grey, almost entirely, én one night, owing to the receipt of bad 
news. It is true that Haller has expressed some doubts upon this sudden change; but we 
consider the testimony of Bichat as conclusive. 
Several interesting cases—Dr. Frederick A. Van Dyke, of this city, remembers a 
case which occurred some years ago, when a person, of rather weak mind, turned grey 
suddenly from fright, having been unexpectedly introduced into a dissecting chamber. 
We have, also, in our cabinet a lock of hair entirely mhéte, which was cut from the head 
of a young lady, the rest of whose hair is chestnut colored. When she was between two 
and three years old, she was frightened by a boy with a mask over his face, and a lock of 
her hair turned white in the particular spot from which our specimen is taken. One-half 
of her left eye-brow, and one-half of the lashes of her left eye, underwent a similar change 
at the same time. The hair which has thus lost its color, has. repeatedly been cut, and 
always sprouts out colorless. She is now 14 years of age, and her family, from whom we 
received the information, is highly respectable and worthy of entire credit. 
