490 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I68J. 



which being warmed by the hand, but especially if they be a little scraped or 

 rubbed on a paper or table, describe letters very legible in the dark. 



Account of a Body, after being long buried, almost wholly converted into Hair, 



Philos. Collect. N° 1, p. 10. 



About 43 years since the body of a woman was buried in this place, (Norem- 

 berg), in a dry and yellow earth, as the earth for the most part is near this city. 

 The corps' lay the lowest of three in the same grave, there being two other 

 corps over it ; the ground, bones, and ashes of which being removed, this 

 coffin began to appear; through the clefts of which much hair was thrust out, 

 and had grown very plentifully, so that it is believed that the whole coffin may 

 for some time have been all covered with hair. The cover of this coffin being 

 removed, the whole corps appeared perfectly resembling a human shape, ex- 

 hibiting the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and all the other parts ; but from the 

 very crown of the head to the sole of the feet covered over with a very thick set 

 hair, long and much curled. Which strange sight much amazed the sexton 

 and his companions ; but after a little viewing of it, going to handle the upper 

 part of the head with his fingers, he found immediately all the shape of the 

 body to fall, and left nothing in his hand but a handful of hair, there being 

 neither skull nor any other bone left, unless it were a very small part of that 

 which they suspect to be the great toe of the right foot. This hair was some- 

 what rough at first, but afterwards it grew very much harder, and of a brown 

 red colour, of which the enclosed papers present you a sample. 



This paper of hair was seen at a meeting of the Royal Society, and remains 

 in their repository at Gresham College, and it is found to be a stiff^ red^ some- 

 .what curled, but rotten hair. 



Some Anatomical Observations on Hair found in several Parts of the Body; as 

 also Teeth, Bones, &c. with parallel Histories of the same observed by others. 

 Communicated by Edward Tyson, M. D. and F, R. S. Philos. Collect^ 

 ]S[°2, p. 11. 



It is the opinion of the learned Honoratus Fabri (lib. 3, de Plantis) and 

 others, that hair, wool, feathers, nails, horns, teeth, &c. are but animal 

 vegetables or plants ; if so, we may be the less surprized at their growth on the 

 body, even after the decease of the animal, as in the foregoing and many other 

 instances. Petre Borelli (Hist, et Obs. Med. Cent. 1, Obs. 10,) thinks that as 

 plants they may be transplanted, and made to grow in a soil they did not at 

 first. What he relates concerning teeth being drawn and set again, I know to 



