14 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE 



served, that about a thousand years ago a Danish robber 

 had violated this church, and having been taken, was con- 

 demned 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 these atoms, ob- 

 tained by drawing one of the old nails, that was subjected 

 to microscopical scrutiny; and it was interesting 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 one of the 

 race to which that man belonged; viz., one with fair com- 

 plexion and light hair, such as the Danes are well known 

 to possess. 



It is evident from this anecdote that the human hair 

 presents characters so indelible that centuries of exposure 

 have not availed to obliterate them, and which readily dis- 

 tinguish 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 size is the same as if six hundred of these hairs 

 were placed side by side. Now, with this eye-piece mi- 

 crometer, we will first of all measure its diameter. 



You see, crossing the bright circular field of view, a 

 semi-pellucid cylindrical object; that is the hair. You see 



