86 T1UCIIOLOCIA 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 

 rvoolly 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. 



* 



OF ATHIPILIE. L'Heritier says, that " white or colorless hair sometimes becomes colored, 

 which phenomenon he calls Athipilie; 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 us a lock of light brown hair, laken 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 T -}^ by ^^ T ; sound and healthy. 



OF PILE LOSING ITS COLOR. Hair sometimes loses its color suddenly, and at others 

 gradually. 



Of the sudden loss of color. Fenchterstehen (in Med. Phy. Cbo.) says, that as a special 

 effect of grief, in excess, arises the well-known phenomenon, when the hair, more or less 

 rapidly, turns grey. Lenhossek mentions the case of a philosopher who suddenly became 

 grey, upon 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, in 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 white, 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. 



