250 GOSSE, ON THE MICROSCOPE. 
a tradition is preserved, that about a thousand years ago a Danish robber 
had violated this church, and having been taken, was 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 these atoms, obtained by drawing one of the old nails, that 
was subjected to microscopical scrutiny; and it was interesting to find that 
the wonder-showing tube could contirm the tradition with the utmost cer- 
tainty ; not only in the general fact, that it was really the skin of man, but 
in the special one of the race to which that man belonged, yiz., one with 
fair complexion and light hair, such as the Danes are well known to possess. 
‘Tt is evident from this anecdote that the human hair presents characters 
so indelible that centuries of exposure have not availed 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, aud a comparison of it with that which belongs to various animals.” 
Thus pleasantly does the author lead us on to the structure 
of a hair from his own head—we are afraid it is getting 
grey,—and from this to all other hairs. At his next sitting 
he takes up the blood, and thus prepares us for an interest in 
this important fluid : 
‘The microscope is daily becoming a more and more important aid to 
legal investigation. An illustration of this occurred not long ago, in which 
a murder was brought home to the criminal by means of this instrument. 
Much circumstantial evidence had been adduced against him, among which 
was the fact, that a knife in his possession was smeared with blood, which 
had dried both on the blade and on the handle. ‘The prisoner strove to turn 
aside the force of this circumstance by asserting that he had cut some raw 
beef with the knife and had omitted to wipe it. 
“The knife was submitted to an eminent professor of microscopy, who 
immediately discovered the following facts:—1l. The stain was certainly 
blood. 2. It was not the blood of a piece of dead flesh, but that of a 
living body; for it had coagulated where it was found. 3. It was not the 
blood of an ox, sheep, or hog. 4. It was human blood. Besides these 
facts, however, other important ones were revealed by the same mode of 
investigation. 5. Among the blood were found some vegetable fibres. 
6. These were proved to be cotéon fibres,—agreeing with those of the mur- 
dered man’s shirt and neck-kerchief. 7. There were present also numerous 
tesselated epithelial cells. In order to understand the meaning and the 
bearing of this last fact, I must explain that the whole of the internal sur- 
face of the body is lined with a delicate membrane (a continuation of the 
external skin), which discharges mucus, and is hence termed mucous mem- 
brane. Now this is composed of loose ceils, which very easily separate, 
called epithelial cells ; they are in fact constantly in process of being de- 
tached (in which state they constitute the mucus), and of being replaced 
from the tissues beneath. Now microscopical anatomists have learned that 
these epithelial scales or cells, which are so minute as to be undiscernible 
by the unaided eye, differ in appearance and arrangement in different parts 
of the body. Thus, those which line the gullet and the lower part of the 
throat are ¢esselated, or resemble the stones of a pavement; those that 
cover the root of the tongue are arranged in cylinders or tall cones, and 
are known as co/ummar; while those that line some of the viscera of the’ 
