2 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



served, 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 scrutiny ; and it was interest- 

 ing 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 off 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 micro- 

 meter, we will first of all measure its diameter. 

 You see, crossing the bright circular field of 

 HAIR, view, a semi-pellucid cylindrical object ; that 

 is the hair. You see also a number of fine 



