On the Scales wJiich cover the fur/ace of the Jkin of the human 

 body, and on the formation of the Bones. 



J. HE external lurface of our bodies is covered with minute parti- 

 cles, which may properly be denominated Scales, placed in regular 

 order befide each other, but fo minute that two hundred, or two hun- 

 dred and fifty of them may be covered by a common grain of fand, 

 and, viewed by an ordinary microfcope, they appear as in Plate XY. 

 fig. 8, H. Many may wonder at the denomination of Scales, and 

 confider that word as only applicable to the covering of Mies. 

 But I fee no reafon why we fliould not affign that name to thofe I 

 am now defcribing, as well as to the external covering of a trout or 

 a carp, or even of a fmelt, although thefe lall are more than an 

 hundred times lefs than thofe of a trout or carp ; in lilce manner 

 thofe particles covering our own bodies, though fome thoufand times 

 lefs than a fmelt's, may properly be denominated Scales, fmce they 

 are fuch in fadt, and anfwer the fame purpofe on our bodies as 

 Scales do on thofe of fillies. Thefe Scales on our bodies, as I have 

 before faid, lie in exadl order befide each other, in like manner as 

 in fiflies ; and I not only could fee that their fhape was a figure of 

 live fides, but in many I could perceive parallel borders or ridges, 

 which I imagined denoted the growth or increafe of each Scale, as 

 by a microfcope we obfei-ve in fiflies. A drawing of one of thefe 

 Scales, as viewed by the microfcope, is given ^.tfg. 9, K ; and this 

 I judged to be a perfed Scale, which had been fixed in the fkin 

 at the end O P, and this part I always found to be not fo broad as 

 Vol. IL Q 



