fat oil, the color of the hair being derived from this oil.

By the chemical analysis of hair it is found to consist of nine different substances: 1st, gelatine or animal matter, which constitutes its greater part; 2d, a white concrete oil in small quantity; 3d, another oil of a grayish-green color more abundant, these oils comprising about one-fourth of the entire weight; 4th, a few particles of oxide of manganese; 5th, iron, the state of which in the hair is unknown; 6th, phosphate of lime; 7th, carbonate of lime in very small quantity; 8th, silex in greater abundance; 9th, and lastly, a considerable amount of sulphur—such is the constitution of all furs, wools, hair, &c., most of which may be dissolved in pure water heated to a temperature above 230° of Fahrenheit, by which it is partially decomposed. Hair is likewise soluble in alkalies, with which it forms soap. Chlorine gas immediately decomposes it, producing a viscid mass.

It is worthy of particular remark, that of all animal products, hair is the one least liable to spontaneous change, evidence of which may be found in the fact that the Peruvian, Mexican, and Brazilian mummy hair is still perfect, and is supposed to be from 2500 to 3000 years old, and stands the hygrometric test with equal firmness. From this we should suppose the body or substance of hair and wool to be exceedingly hard and solid, which is really the case, as no pressure has yet been applied sufficiently powerful to entirely deprive wool of the water with which it has been washed—the interstices between the fibres of the assemblage never having been closed by the power applied, as the water therein collected may still be drained off when the pressure is removed.

Although hair is of a tubular construction, yet all varieties are not of a completely cylindrical form; a curl is the result of all flat-sided or oval hairs, the exceeding oval being the unfailing characteristic of the negro race. A cross section of a hair, if circular, denotes the long, soft, and lank fibre of a cold northern animal; but if the cross section shows an extreme flat-sided hair, that hair will be crisp and frizzled, and of a tropical extraction. Quite a gradual change in the form of the fibre of hair is observed in all animals as we ascend from the equator to the highest latitudes, other things being equal.

It has long been a desideratum how to discriminate between the various qualities of hatters' fine furs, and no really reliable test has yet been obtained, superior to the judgment of the human eye, the fineness of fibre for the hatter being of most essential importance, particularly that allotted for the flowing nap upon the outside of the hat. Although the thickness of the fibre of the finer furs has never been properly gauged, it will be a source of some satisfaction to know that the diameter of the human hair varies from the 250th to the 600th part of an inch, while the fibre of the coarsest wool is about the 500th and the finest about the 1500th part of an inch.

Hair may be bleached on the grass like linen, after previous washing and steeping in a bleaching liquid, after which it may be dyed of any color.

It is very doubtful whether the growth of hair can by any artificial means be expedited, or the hair itself increased in length, in quality, or in density. A fine field of enterprise would be opened for the fortunate inventor who could increase the produce of the finer and more expensive furs. In contradistinction to this, however, it may be stated that the inhabitants of some countries, the Malays, for instance, purposely destroy their hair by using quick-lime.

We come next to describe minutely another peculiarity appertaining to hair, upon which all felting or shrinking of a fabric depends; that grand secret that has been a mystery in all ages, until within a few years, or at best was only surmised. Upon this property alone depends the whole art of hatting and of felt making, whether in sheets or otherwise, as well as the fulling of cloth and the shrinking of flannels, and all articles the material of which is made of wool, hair, or fur.

As many branches of business depend for their success upon the non-shrinking quality of their goods, a study of the felting principle becomes quite appropriate and interesting to those manufacturers, whilst perusing that of the opposite. Pulled wools, rather than cut or shorn wools, must always have the preference with the one class of manufacturers; at the same time, the other class must adhere tenaciously to those which have been cut, the roots of the hair causing all the difference, for that remarkable quality, the felting principle, is upon all the same whether pulled or cut.

A few familiar facts dependent upon this inherent felting quality of hair will aid the illustration. When a hair is held by the top, it can be severed with a razor much more readily than if held by the root. Again, a hair held by the root, and drawn through between the finger and thumb, feels quite smooth, but when held by the top, a rough and tremulous motion is perceived.

Again, place a hair of three or four inches in length by the middle, between the finger and thumb, and twirl it a few times, when the hair will be found to proceed towards one end, as the twirling and rubbing are continued, and invariably advancing root end foremost, whichever way the hair is placed between the fingers. If two hairs are used in this example, lay the root of the one to the top of the other, their respective motions will be doubly discernible.

The cause of all these singularities of the hair it is now designed to explain, which shall be done as explicitly and concisely as possible, with a few proofs of its astonishing power in a collective capacity.

The above-mentioned phenomena are the result of that same long-hidden property, and which is nothing more than a certain clothing or covering, entirely surrounding the stem of every hair, in the form of very minute scales, so very minute, indeed, that it requires the aid of a very powerful microscope to enable the beholder to discern them, and even then but faintly. These scales, which cover thickly every filament of animal hair, wool, fur, &c., are thin pointed lamina, quite similar to the scales on a fish, and overlapping each other as do the shingles or slates upon a house. This state of the hair being understood, the modus operandi of the above examples may be thus explained: When the hair was held by the point, it was easily cut by the edge of the razor entering under the scales; but when held by the root, the instrument slipped smoothly over them; and the hair that was drawn through the fingers, when held by the point, felt rough and tremulous, from the jagged points of the scales, but smooth when drawn in their own direction.

The twirling of the hairs between the finger and thumb, resulting in their travelling motion, was on account of the points of the scales catching on the fingers, in the act of rubbing, similar to the heads of wheat or barley at harvest time which school-boys put into the sleeves of their coats, and which are sure to come out at some other extremity to that at which they were put in, caused by the working of the boy's arm upon the jaggy beard or awn of the barley head.

The task of counting the number of these lamina that clothe the body of these hairs, must have been both tedious and difficult, from their very minuteness and profusion. On a single filament of merino wool, as many as 2400 barbed scales, like teeth, projecting from the centre stem, have been counted in the space of one inch. On Saxony wool there were 2700, while other wools were as low as 1860, and none were found to have so few as 1000 to the inch.

No vegetable wools