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LV. Extract of a Memoir upon Hair. Read at the French 

 National Institute, by M. Vauguelin*. 



X he principal object which the author had in view on 

 undertaking his experiments on the above subject, was to 

 ascertain the nature of the animal matter of which hairs 

 are formed, and if there was any thing analogous in the 

 animal ceconomy. But in the course of his experiments 

 phenomena presented themselves which, appearing foreign 

 to the principal substance, led him further than he intended: 

 it did not enter into his plan at first to inquire into the cause 

 of the various colours of hair, which nevertheless became 

 the principal object with which he was occupied. It is 

 only, he says, after labouring a long time upon the same 

 object, by carefully observing the phenomena which arise, 

 and by meditating on the causes which produced them, that 

 we arrive at results—often impossible to foresee a priori. 

 Nevertheless, he does not flatter himself that he has pene- 

 trated into all the secrets of nature on this subject ; nor 

 does he propose his ideas but with that reserve which 

 ought to be shown in such difficult researches. He gives, 

 however, an exact description of his experiments ; com- 

 pares and discusses them, and draws such conclusions as 

 appear to him the most natural. We shall now give an 

 abridgment of the chief of his experiments, as well as the 

 corollaries he deduces from them. 



I boiled, says he, some hair in water for several days, 

 without being able to dissolve it ; the water, however, con- 

 tained a small quantity of animal matter, as was demen- 

 strated on the application of infusion of galls and other re- 

 agents. 



It is probable that this matter, which gives the water the 

 property of putrefying, is foreign to the proper substance of 

 hairs. I conclude from this experiment, that at the tempe- 

 rature at which water boils in the air, hairs cannot be dis- 

 solved. 



• From .1>,rr,:r< ,U C',h„,c, tome lviii. p. 11. Metsrs. Chcvrufl and C.iUDe, 

 two of M, Vau lutlini jwpiU, M "ted ^i the «xjperinienti rdated in the above 

 memoir. . 



I sue- 



