NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 167 



HAIR OF THE PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE. 



The Rev. J. L. Zabriskie : " This animal has become cele- 

 brated on account of admirable published descriptions of its 

 structure and habits, and also on account of its frequent do- 

 mestication, in his private grounds, by the Hon. John D. Caton, 

 of Chicago, Illinois. 



" The creature stands alone, the only species of its genus. 

 Its horns are hollow, and yet are shed at regular intervals, so 

 that it fills a gap in classification between the ruminants, which 

 have hollow, persistent horns, and those which have them solid 

 and deciduous. Its habitat is confined to the New World, and 

 to a very limited portion of our own country — the dry gravelly 

 regions west of the upper waters of the Missouri river. 



"The hair on most portions of its body shows in extreme 

 degree the characteristics usually found in the deer-family — a 

 large diameter compared with the length, and the interior filled 

 with a copious medulla, consisting of very large cells, leaving 

 only a thin cylinder of cortex, thus allowing the hair, between 

 the root and the suddenly attenuated point, to bend easily 

 without breaking. 



" The specimens exhibited were taken from a dried hide, 

 attached to a piece of the skin, cut from the margin of the bul- 

 let-hole, where the missile had entered which killed the 

 animal. The hairs were deeply stained with blood. I was in- 

 formed that it had been found impossible to wash this blood 

 from the hairs. The sections show the reason of this to be the 

 fact that the blood does not cling to the surface of the hairs, 

 but has penetrated and still occupies the large cells of the 

 medulla. 



" I take pleasure in donating the slide to the Cabinet of the 

 Society." 



INORGANIC FORMS RESEMBLING DIATOMS. 



Mr. Charles F. Cox- "The slides which I exhibit contain 

 inorganic forms most strikingly resembling Diatoms and their 

 markings. One exhibit consists of crystals of Meconic Acid 

 from opium, and the other of films of Silicate of Soda." 



Dr. Holman, of Philadelphia, on request, addressed the So- 

 ciety on the construction and operation of the Current-Slide, 



