[ 204 ] [Book IX. 



C H AP. XVI. 



THE HAIR AND THE NAILS. 



Opinions of Anatomijls ivitb rcj'peS to tbe Nature of the Hair, 



C5V. ;Hair originates from the Cellular Subjiance. Fo/itana's Qb- 

 Jer--vations on Hair. -f The Nails. The Horns, Hoofs, and Claws of 

 Animals. 



MANY anatomifls chufe to call the hair, the 

 nailsj and the horns of animals, productions of 

 the epidermis j by Malpighi and Rufh the hairs were 

 iuppofed to be continuations from the nerves ; neither 

 of which opinions, however, ieems to be fufficiently 

 proved, though the former appears by far the more 

 probable. The hairs are diftributed more or lefs re- 

 markably over the whole body, except on the palms 

 of the hands and foles of the feet. They rife each 

 of them from a feparate oval bulb, placed beneath 

 the true fkin, and lodged in the cellular fubftance, and 

 they are furroimded by a (heath, which rifes with them 

 as far as the furface of the body, 



The Abbe Fontana took a hair, which he clranfed 

 by repeatedly drawing it through a piece of fine linen 

 dipt in water ; he examined it with lenfes of diffe- 

 rent powers, from foine which magnified 400, to 

 others which magnified 700 diameters, and the ap-. 

 pearances, he informs us, were uniformly the fame. 

 The hair in general appeared of the colour of tranf- 

 parent amber ; towards the center, however, of ir, 

 there was an obfcure line, which was broken at one 

 part. It appeared woven, and formed by, or covered 

 with, twifting cylinders, interrupted at places, and 

 winding like the inteftines of animals. Among the 



winding 



