354 Memoir upon Hair. 



gave a brownish yellow colour to the ashes, phosphate, sul- 

 phate, and carbonate of lime, a little muriate of soda, and a 

 considerable quantity of silex. The ashes of red hair are 

 less coloured, because they contain less iron and manga- 

 nese ; those of white hair contain less also, but abundance 

 of magnesia is found in them relatively to the other prin- 

 ciples. Hair leaves little more than 1*5 of ashes. 



Alcohol extracts two kinds of oil from black hair ; the 

 one white, which is deposited upon cooling in the form of 

 small brilliant flakes ; the other, which separates in propor- 

 tion as the alcohol volatilizes, is of a greenish gray, and 

 also becomes concrete in time. 



Red hair also yields a white and concrete oil like sperma- 

 ceti ; but alcohol leaves a deposit by evaporation of another 

 oil, which is as red as blood. What is remarkable and in- 

 teresting in this experiment is, that the reddest hairs upon 

 ■which alcohol was employed became brown or deep chest- 

 nut-coloured. I conclude from this, that the colour of red 

 hair is owing to the presence of this oil. 



According to the experiments reported in this memoir of 

 M. Vauquelin, (a great many of which we have omitted, as 

 being only accessary to the principal object,) it appears that 

 black hair is formed of nine different substances, viz. 



1. An animal matter, forming the greatest proportion. 



2. A white concrete oil, in small quantity. 



3. Another greenish gray oil, very abundant. 



4. Iron, the state of which in hair is as yet uncertain. 



5. Some particles of oxide of manganese. 



6. Phosphate of lime. 



7. Carbonate of lime, in a very small quantity. # 



8. Silex, in a notable quantity. 



9. Lastly, a considerable quantity of sulphur. 



The same experiments asccrtaiued that red hair does not 

 differ from black, except that it contains a red oil in place 

 of a greenish-black one ; finally, that white hair differs 

 from the two former, in so far as its oil is almost colourless, 

 and it contains phosphate of magnesia, which is not found 

 in the others. 



According to this knowledge of the nature of the consti- 

 tuent 



