44 TRICIIOLOGIA MAMMA LIUM; 



together and appear to be grey to the unassisted vision. Figure 50 e shows some of these 

 dispositions of the coloring matter: a, the Mouse; b, the Pouched Rat of Kentucky; c, the 

 Otter; d, the Irish Ermine ; e, the Ermine. 



OF THE COLORING MATTER OF PILE. Prof. Robert Hare remarks that ' None of the 

 operations of nature are more inscrutable, than those by which organic substances are 

 endowed with the immense variety of colors with which vegetables and animals are 

 adorned. The chemist," he says, "may know how to elaborate dyes, to fix them, by the 

 interposition of mordants, to vary their hues; but. excepting the influence of transparent 

 media, or crystalline structure, in dispersing refracted or polarized rays, he is still quite 

 ignorant of the differences in the arrangement of particles which give rise to diversity of 

 color, or the mode in which chemical combinations cause the various colors of the precipi- 

 tates." (Compen. 419.) Moreover, R as pail informs us, that " The coloring matter of 

 vegetables, (which acts such a prominent part in their organization,) has been classed, 

 sometimes, among fatty matters ; but that it is, in fact, a variety of max." (New Syst. of 

 Org. Chem., p. 462.) Henle still considers the coloring matter of pile as a fat. This 

 learned philosopher, after deploring that we do not possess a better analysis of hair, in 

 which regard should be paid to the three substances which compose its stalk, adds that, 

 "According to those we possess, hair is a combination of fat and a horny substance ; the 

 first belonging to the centre, and the last to the cortex and intermediate substance. The 

 fat," he says, "maybe extracted by boiling the hair in alcohol; that it is, ordinarily, 

 acids, viz : the margaric and the oleic." It has, (he avers,) a Mood-red tinge in red hair, 

 greenish grey in brown hair, and, (according to Jahns, Der. Haarcortz, t. 1., p. 49,) white 

 hair has a limpid oil. He concludes that after the extraction of the fat, brown hair becomes 

 greenish yellow. L'Heritier analyzed the hair of an albino, and found that it contains a 

 colorless liquid and a solid white fat. (Traite. de Chem. Path., 616.) 



It would seem from the foregoing quotations, that this portion of our subject is fraught 

 with intrinsic difficulties. Commencing under such unfavorable circumstances, shall we 

 be able to trace this unknown to so small a particle of matter as the coloring of a hair. 



The names given to coloring matter are " Chromule and Chlorophyl." In vegetables 

 the prevailing color is green, and a combination of the black oxide of manganese and 

 potash, (which is white,) gives to water a green color. Now manganese and iron both 

 enter into the composition of pile ; so that if hair was green, we would experience little 

 difficulty in attributing its color to the iron and manganese. But the green color imparted 

 to water by the manganese and potash, passes gradually through all the shades of the 

 prism, and eventually becomes colorless after throwing down the black oxide ; which shows 

 that the manganese may enter into the basis of the coloring matter of pile, notwithstand- 

 ing it is not green. How is it in regard to plants? Their chlorophyl, (or coloring matter,) 

 although it imparts to the leaves, a green color, furnishes to the Jlowers, all those various 

 tints, which, in those beautiful objects, so much delight the eye; and even in the leaves, 

 the green color, at certain seasons, or under peculiar circumstances, turn yelLw, red and 

 brown, the very colors found in hair. So Berzelius mentions two substances which color 



