FOOD. 



183 



compressed when surrounded by the natural envelope; but when re- 

 leased from the husk, the hairs expand, and thus occasion the naked eye 

 to behold something far too large for the case from which it has re- 

 cently been released. 



A MAGNIFIED ENGLISH OAT. 



In the inferior sorts, the hairs are rather longer, and likewise more 

 numerous, than in the better kind of corn ; while, of course, the covering, 

 according to the smallness of the grain, becomes serious, when regarded 

 as a proportionate weight of the whole. These diminutive hairs are 

 perfectly indigestible and entirely indestructible when taken into the 

 stomach. The peristaltic action releases them from the surface of the 

 kernel ; being set free, they are frequently felted together by the moist- 

 ure and rolling motion of the stomach. However small the hairs may 

 be separately, nevertheless by their union they form masses of immense 

 size, provoking such serious impactment as often leads to a terrible and 



ILL1ISTIIA1<I0NS or THE OAT HAIR CALCULUS. COPIED FROM THE INTERESTINa WOEK ON OONCRETIDNS, 

 BY PROFESSOR MORTON. 



1. A section of an Oat Hair Calculus. 2. Magnified hairs, mixed with crystals of the phosphates. 

 ^. Hairs, further magnified. 4. Hairs, so enlarged as to display their bulbous insertions and curved 

 forms. 



a fatal issue. A further reason, therefore, exists for employing good 

 grain in the possibility of such accumulations, the true nature of which 



