_160 SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



Under this head of colour we shall briefly notice 

 the varieties in the hair, beard, and iris. 



The structure and properties of the hair are closely 

 allied to those of the skin, and it derives the means 

 of its growth, and probably its colouring matter, 

 from the cutaneous vessels. Each hair may be 

 traced through the cuticle and surface of the cutis 

 to a bulb partly in the chorion and partly in the cel- 

 lular membrane. This bulb consists of a thick outer 

 covering, in which the root of the hair and a vascular 

 pulp by which the root is secreted, are contained. 



There is a close analogy between the skin and 

 hair. The latter, in the albino, as before ob- 

 served, is soft and white. A light complexion and 

 thin skin are usually accompanied with fair or red 

 hair, and darker hair usually belongs to a dark 

 colour and thick skin. 



In the coloured varieties of the human race, the 

 hair is black and always coarser than that of Euro- 

 peans. In the spotted negroes the hair growing out 

 of a white patch on the head, is white, a presumptive 

 proof that the colouring matter of the skin and hair 

 is the same. 



The principal differences in the hair are four. 

 1. Brownish, deviating into yellow or red, or into 

 black. It is copious, long and soft, and characterizes 

 the natives of the temperate climates of Europe, and 

 somewhat stronger and darker belongs to the eastern 

 Asiatics and northern Africans, and the Celtic and 

 Slavonic races in Europe. 



2. Black, strong, strait, and thin. This character 



