157 



was carefully examined as an opaque object, with a magnifying power 

 of forty diameters, and as soon as a hair was found it was seized with 

 a pair of very fine-pointed forceps and torn out ; the hair was then 

 placed between glass, either with or without fluid, and viewed with a 

 power of two hundred linear, which will be found quite sufficient to 

 exhibit all the characters so fully known to microscopists. These are 

 well shown in PI. 24, figs. 1, 2, 3, by the accurate drawing of Mr. 

 Leonard, and their identity will be established beyond a doubt, when 

 figs. 1, 2, 3 are compared with that exhibited at fig. 4, which repre- 

 sents a small light-coloured recent hair taken from the arm. 



It would, probably, be needless to dwell longer on the charac- 

 teristics of human hair, as since the invention of the microscope no 

 object has been more frequently examined, consequently its pecu- 

 liarities of structure are universally understood. There is, however, 

 one other point of great interest connected with human skin, that here 

 deserves mention, and this is the comparatively small number of hairs 

 with which certain parts of its surface are supplied; on reflection, 

 we shall find that no mammalian animals, save those nearly allied 

 to man himself, have any part of the body unprovided with hair, and 

 had other than human skin been exposed to the same circumstances, 

 some evidence of the abundance of the hairy covering would have 

 been observed on microscopic investigation ; but the present speci- 

 mens, in the paucity of hairs found on them, fully bear out all 

 the opinions that might, a priori, have been predicted of them. The 

 specimen from Worcester, on its under surface, shows the markings of 

 the grains of the wood, and the paint with which the door was 

 covered ; this would go far to prove that the skin was laid on when in 

 a moist state, or soon after its removal from the body : but neither of 

 the other specimens exhibits the same appearances. 



Besides showing the great scientific value of the microscope, in 

 bringing to light otherwise hidden truths, these specimens fully 

 establish the wonderful power of skin and hair to withstand for centu- 

 ries atmospheric influences, and serve to point out, that next to the 

 bones, they are the most durable parts of the human frame. 



TRANS. MIC. SOC. VOL. II. 



