Hairs and Feathers. 57 



takes. For, observe the hair of the horse in which 

 the pith is narrow and interrupted in two specimens, 

 and altogether absent in a third, and some specimens 

 of wool, in none of which it occurs ; and on the other 

 hand, the hair of the fallow-deer, almost entirely made 

 up of cells, and in which the rind can only be seen as 

 a very thin layer at each side. 



In that of the musk-deer (a few specimens of 

 which reached me, after coming in a letter from India 

 on chance of their proving interesting) the cortical sub- 

 stance may be said to be reduced to a minimum. For 

 I observe the hair to be composed from edge to edge 

 of angular cells (which have been well compared to 

 the cellular tissue of vegetables), and I miss the thin 

 layer of rind observable in the fallow-deer's hair. 

 But, adjusting the microscope so as to catch the exact 

 focus for this edge, a faint appearance of overlapping 

 scales can be detected. On again altering the focus 

 to catch the surface of the hair, I see the outside set 

 of cells terminating in a beautiful kind of network, 

 much resembling Gothic tracery, and very similar to 

 that of the fallow-deer, and in a specimen mounted in 

 balsam this appears to be the real outside of the hair. 

 But on examining one mounted dry I perceive the 

 scales as a film of utmost delicacy just concealing the 

 Gothic tracery slightly, as a piece of tissue paper would 

 veil the page you are reading if laid over it ; and the 

 overlapping edges of the scales appear very similar to 

 those on the broad parts of the otter's hair. 



And now, as to human hair, about which I can 

 imagine the reader has been wishing to hear. Is it all 



