ticular, the colour of the skin bears a relation to that of the
hair, and there is an intimate connexion between these phenomena,
indicating their dependence on a common G^use.
Men who have white or red hair,„have generally what is
termed a fair skin, that is, a complexion not merely, of white
or light hue, but owing to the peculiarity of its „texture, of a
ruddy tint, This, is derived from the transparent nature of
the skin, transmitting the ; colour of the blood which circulates
in the cutaneous tissue.
Black-haired persons have sometiipes skins as white, but
notrso fair and transparent as the light-haired. The skins of
the former also differ from those of the latter, in regard ,to; the
effect produced Upon them by exposure to the heat iand light
of the sun. When so exposed, the complexion of the black-
haired presently acquires a brown or yellowish hue, very
different from the tinge produced in the sanguine, whose skin,
as well as that of the albino, becomes reddened, inflamed, and
blistered. I f therefore black-haired persons are very white,
they may be considered as etiolated or ble&ched b$ artificial
protection from light, or at least' from the».solar rays; and
when exposed freely to the influences of climate, their colour
is found to differ nearly in proportion to the temperature of
different countries. The women pf Syria and pf: Barbary are
often very white,* though they have black hair, ?but this ds
the result of careful protection from the sun. And in Europe;
black-haired women are termed brunettes, from the hji^ which
the skia acquires on ordinary exposure.
The colour of the eye corresponds with that of the hair;
but with more frequent exceptions, for it is not very uncom-
mon to see black-haired persons with light blue or grey eyes ;
the converse is more rare, red or white-haired „persons having
very seldom or never black eyes._ Generally white-haired
or y e ^ , light flaxen-haired persons have- either very light
blue eyes, or the choroid is red from a total absence of the
pigment, which in other instances covers its surface, and
* “ Les femmes'qui habitent dans les villes de Barbarie sont d’une blancheur
presque rébutante, d’un blanc de inarbre qui tranche trop avec le rouge très vive .
de leurs joues.” Buffon, on the authority of Bruce, Hist. Nat. tom. y.
fi’piu the-hue .of the blood-being perceptible through the trails?
parent coats;-* Such* red-eyedi persons, are termed albinos.
Their physical condition, is;,iUQib-?SO#strongly distinguished
frOm^hatoof other, very;fair persons.;:;as it is commonly supposed,
and bothrappear iohbes only-different degrees of the
sameiconstitution; Tor,.the- albino has, been known, to acquire
the pigment, and tosbecome a. pefSont', of <;the ordinary fair
cpmplf^ion with blue>oyes.^ ;?
The preceding1 remarksdndiqatf' the.propriety of dividing
thej complexions of mankind into three;clasrses^rdistinguished
by the* colour- of the^eyesiand’ ,hair. This -division will' be
* It is observed in fheyDuMAn Journal of-Medical and Chemical- Science, No. V.
that the fact asserted here may be proved by killing ^ a white rabbity and cutting
one m ils eyes out ofmeofibit: the vessels being thus divided, and the blood
suffered'to escape by’immersion in water, ‘die iris and pupil then'appear quite
colourless, both by reflected and transmitted ligh t. : |J
+ I extract the following interesting, particulars from the Dublin Journal,
No. XV. above cited. * ThcSyarqfrom die able aqd distinguished,editor. Professor
Graves/
“ Last year, Dr. ’Ascherson informed me that he had seen a cage*of the'after dc4
velopement of .the; .pigment of the . ey e; * in an albino boy,, three years old.-' This
child hadsLtJLts birth white hair, and viplet-colojped> eyes, with dark red pupils,;
at the end of the third year its hair was light brown, and ite pyes were blue; but
they had sim'M5a remarkable degree, though less so than before, that restlessness
peculiar to albinos! This was the only case of the kihd-I had ever heard of, except
that communicated by Michadis^in Jllumenbachls Medicinische Bibliothek,
volfiiivp. 679 ; whichirowever, rests only on the uncertain authority of some peasants.
Singularly enough, (says Dr. Graves,) I bad soon after the good fortune to meet
with a similar case myself. In my younger days, there were two children, a brother
and sister, living near me, who presented such' striking symptoms of leucosis in their
eyes, hair, and skin, that they were recognised as albinos even by non-medical persons.
My attention was lately drawn to them ,by an advertisement. I saw . ip-the
papers, in which their name occurred, and I learned that the brother had.become a
tobaccoiiist; but, to my great astonishment, on going to see him, I found that his
eyes had changed from violet red to grey, and his hair from white to light brown, and
that <the susceptibility of the, eyes to the light had greatly diminished. There is a
circumstance in some degree analogous to this subsequent, developement of the pigment
of the eye, which though much less striking, is of frequent occurrence;
namely, that in children bom with grey or blue eyes, they gradually become
brown before the expiration of the first or Second year. How far Rudolphi’s
statement is correct, that the secretion of the pigment of'the eye is more copious in
youth than in middle age, I am not prepared to say. Desmoulins also maintains,
that the pigment of the eyes dmiinishes in old people, as is notoriously the
case with that of the hair.”—Dublin Journal of Medical and Chemical Science,