Abstract
IN a note in the Journal of Physiology (vol. xxxviii.) on the chemical nature of albinism, Mr. Mudge describes some interesting observations which he made upon rats' skins. Starting with the presumption, based upon the work of Miss Durham and Cuénot, that an albino carries a chromogen and lacks the ferment necessary to produce pigment from it, and supposing that fermentation is a process of oxidation or reduction, Mr. Mudge argued that it might be possible to produce pigment artificially by means of an oxidising or reducing agent. He found by experiment that immersion of albino rat skins in a solution of 10 per cent, formalin and 70 per cent. alcohol in equal volumes resulted in a “vivid yellow colour” in the hairs; he further states that these coats, when washed in water and immersed in H2O2 (20 vols.), become changed in colour from vivid yellow to a “brownish tint” in about twenty-four hours. He adduces arguments to show that the coloration is due to the presence of a specific body in the hairs diffused through the keratin, and not to mere reaction between the keratin and the formalin.
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SOLLAS, I. Certain Reactions of Albino Hair. Nature 83, 96 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/083096b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/083096b0
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