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whence it came. The blanching of hair suddenly from some 

 nervous excitement or prostration was referred to as veritable, 

 and instances given. As to how a cut hair grows again, 

 some proof is still required ; short hairs being near the source 

 of nourishment get pointed, but long hairs, having less vitality 

 at their extremities, often split. Hairs of some animals are so 

 modified as to lose the character of hairs — such are the horny 

 plates of armadillo, formed of hairs matted close together. 

 Feathers at first grow like hairs, but the follicle is continued to 

 some distance outside the skin, and the young feather is well 

 formed before it is set free by rupture of the capsule, in which 

 act the bird assists by picking at it. 



Horns may be divided into four varieties. 1st, Solid horn, 

 without osseous core, arising only from integument, as 

 rhinocerous. 2nd, Osseous protuberances, covered by integu- 

 ment, as giraffe. 3rd, Osseous protuberances, covered by horn, 

 as sheep, cow, #c. 4th, Osseous protuberances, without either 

 integument or horn covering them ; these grow to a large size, 

 and are the antlers of deer, and, being bone, are not to be 

 classed with true horns. Horns seem to be but a collection of 

 hairs, united to give strength and durability. 



Nails, claws, and hoofs only differ in shape. They grow from 

 a depression in true skin, or matrix, in which the cells are 

 aggregated over large and highly vascular papillae. 



Scales in the reptiles are true epidermic appendages, being 

 developed upon the surface of the true skin ; but scales of 

 fish are not so, being imbeded in the substance of true skin, and 

 covered over with a layer of it, as may be readily observed in 

 the eel with the microscope. The otenoid and cycloid scales of 

 the fish of our present seas are cartilaginous and calcareous more 

 or less; while the ganoid scale of fossil fish is essentially bony, and 

 the placoid scale of the shark and ray, with their fossil analogues, 

 are of a dentine structure. 



At the Fifth Meeting of the Society the Eev. William 

 Macllwaine read an elaborate and well-considered paper on 

 " The Continuity of Creation." 



