EIGHTH MEETING. 



Royal Institution. — February 9,^852. 



J. B. YATES, Esq., F.S.A., Ac, President, in the chair. 



Mr. Alfred Holt was elected an Ordinaiy Member. 



The Secretary read a Letter from Theodore W. Rathbone, Esq., 

 President of the Royal Institution, expressing the gratification felt by 

 the Committee in allowing the Portrait of Mr. Yates to be hung in the 

 Committee-room of the Institution. 



Dr. Inman announced that Mr. Byerley was far advanced in the 

 preparation of a Fauna of Liverpool and the neighbourhood. He 

 suggested that the Council should consider how far the Fauna might be 

 made complete, by circulating amongst the members and others a 

 printed copy of Mr. Byerley 's list. The subject was referred to the 

 Council to report. 



The following Paper was read by Thos. Inman, M.D., F.B.S.E., &c. 



ON THE NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPIC 

 CHARACTERS OF HAIR. 



All organized beings, be they animal or vegetable, have a tegumentary 

 covering. To this are attached a number of appendages, such as hairs, 

 nails, horns, hoofs, scales, feathers, down, shell, &c. 



The character of the skin varies considerably. In the vegetable world, 

 we have it thin as imagination can conceive, or thick and hard as a 

 nutshell. In the animal, we have every gradation, from the delicate skin 

 of an oyster, to the hard and shelly coat of a lobster — from the velvet-like 

 softness of a beauty's cheek, to the rough hide of an elephant or a shark. 



In like manner the appendages of the skin vary. We have hair so fine 

 that the eye can scarcely detect it, and so coarse that it resembles 

 horn. We have hairs upon one animal, featliers on another^ scales on a 

 third ; bristles upon this, fur upon that, and wool upon another. But, 



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