248 SKIN, HAIR, AND NAILS, BY ALFKED BIESIADECKI. 



the cortical substance (fig. 201, k), and is composed of granular 

 polyhedric cells ; it can be most distinctly seen in grey hairs. 



The shaft of hairs that have not been cut terminates in a fine 

 and always non-medullated point, and in the other direction 

 passes gradually into the root. 



The root of the hair (fig. 192, I) is that part of the hair that 

 surrounds the papilla, and occupies the deepest part of the 

 hair follicle. The bulbous portion is composed of nucleated 

 cells resembling those of the lowermost tiers of the rete mu- 

 cosum, and differing from them in all probability only in 

 possessing a certain degree of solidity. 



The cells lying next to the papilla are columnar, and 

 arranged vertically upon its surface, in many instances being 

 attached only by a delicate thread. The outermost cells are 

 in contact with the vitreous membrane of the hair follicle, and 

 are somewhat flattened, whilst those forming the middle por- 

 tion of the root are polyhedric, and contain a large and well- 

 defined nucleus. 



In the middle of this mass of cells a series may be perceived 

 at the level of the papillary body, running parallel to the 

 vitreous membrane, and distinguished from the rest by being 

 more closely arranged, by being flattened from above down- 

 wards, and by becoming intensely stained with carmine. 



At the level of the apex of the papilla, or even in many in- 

 stances somewhat lower, a series of small scales, arranged 

 perpendicularly to the axis of the hair, appear as a continu- 

 ation of this row of cells, but above the papilla they become 

 more and more parallel to the axis of the hair, so that the 

 lower cover a great part of the upper ones, leaving only 

 about a sixth part of the upper surface free. As these scales 

 become progressively more and more closely applied to each 

 other and fuse together, they form the cuticle that is recognizable 

 as a clear and finely toothed border surrounding the hair. 



These cuticular cells occurring in the middle of the hair root 

 divide it into a central portion surrounding the papilla, and a 

 peripheric part, that is in contact with the vitreous membrane, 

 and is scarcely one-fourth of the thickness of the former. 



The middle part of the root of the hair consists, as we have 

 said, of columnar cells resting upon the papilla, and more 



