EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



preserved, that, about a thousand years ago, a Danish 

 robber had violated this church, and, having been taken, 

 had been condemned to be flayed, and his skin nailed to 

 the church-door, as a terror to evil-doers. The action of 

 the weather and other causes had long ago removed all 

 traces of the stretched and dried skin, except that, from 

 under the edges of the broad-headed nails with which 

 the door was studded, fragments still peeped out. It 

 was one of those atoms, obtained by drawing one of the 

 old nails, that was now subjected to microscopical scru- 

 tiny ; and it was interesting to find that the wonder- 

 showing tube could confirm the tradition with the utmost 

 certainty ; not only in the general fact, that it was really 

 the skin of man, but in the special fact of the race to 

 which that man belonged, viz., one with fair complexion and 

 light hair, such as the Danes are well known to possess. 

 It is evident from this anecdote that the human hair 

 presents characters which are so indelible that centuries 

 of exposure do not avail to obliterate them, 

 and which readily distinguish it from the hair 

 of any other creature. Let us then begin our 

 evening's entertainment by an examination of 

 a human hair, and a comparison of it with 

 that which belongs to various animals. 



Here, then, is a hair from my own head. I 

 cut oft" about half-an-inch of its length, and, 

 laying it between two plates of glass, put it 

 upon the stage of the microscope. I now 

 apply a power of 600 diameters ; that is, the 

 apparent increase of thickness is the same as 

 if six hundred of these hairs were placed side 

 by side. Now, with this eye-piece micrometer, 

 we will first of all measure its diameter. 



You see, crossing the bright circular field 

 of view, a semi-pellucid cylindrical object • 

 that is the hair. You see also a number of fine 



HVMAN HAIR. 



