95 



ments upon it, and VAUQUELIN has given us*, a 

 complete examination of the subject. The re- 

 sult of his analysis was, that the mass of the hair 

 is insoluble both in cold and boiling water, but 

 that it may be dissolved in PAPIN'S digester: 

 the fluid thus produced does not form itself into 

 a jelly, but becomes viscid as it' dries. In this 

 solution, and also when the hair is dissolved in a 

 very dilated caustic lye, or in nitric acid, an 

 oil is produced, which has the colour of the hair. 

 From this very oil, YAUQTJEJLIN deduces the 

 different colours of the hair, and he found in the 

 ashes of black hair, besides the usual sails of lime, 

 oxycl of iron and of manganese and silica. Red 

 hair, which contains more sulphur than the black, 

 left less iron and manganese in the ashes; and 

 \vhite hair left still less, but its ashes were found 

 to contain a distinguishable quantity of magnesia. 



Urine has undergone more chemical examination 

 than any other animal matter, VAN HELMONT 

 gave us the first experiment upon it in his trea- 

 tise on the stone. BRANDT and KUNKEL, twen- 

 ty-five years afterwards, discovered phosphorus, 

 which they prepared from the constituents of 

 urine. BOYLE, in consequence of their dis- 

 covery, tried to analyse this fluid, and actually 



