[Tyndall's hypochromism in suspensions]

Since the passage of light through each individual particle in a suspension includes the competition of processes of absorption and scattering, it leads to hypochromism--a decrease in the extinction coefficient. Such "scattering" hypochromism increases with the particle size and its refractive index. Since the Tyndall's light scattering in suspensions, where the size of each particle is substantially larger with respect to wavelengths of light, is not strongly dependent on the wavelength, the absorption spectrum (and excitation spectrum) attenuated almost uniformly at different wavelengths. A simple method to find true extinction coefficients from the absorption (or excitation) spectra of diluted suspensions (not having multiple light scattering) is suggested. The experimental data on spectra of hemoglobin in erythrocytes, actinomycin in DNA and flavins in mitochondria are given.