EVENINGS 



AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



CHAPTEE I. 



HAIRS, FEATHERS, AND SCALES. 



Not many years ago an eminent microscopist received a 

 communication inquiring whether, if a minute portion of 

 dried skin were submitted to him, he could determine it to 

 be human skin or. not. He replied that he thought he 

 could. Accordingly a very minute fragment was for- 

 warded to him, somewhat resembling what might be torn 

 from the surface of an old trunk, with all the hair rubbed 

 off. 



The professor brought his microscope to bear upon it, 

 and presently found some fine hairs scattered over the 

 surface ; which, after carefully examining them, he pro- 

 nounced with confidence to be human hairs, and such as 

 grew on the naked parts of the body ; and declared the 

 person who had owned them to have been of a fair com- 

 plexion. 



This was a very interesting decision, because the frag- 

 ment of skin was taken from the door of an old church in 

 Yorkshire ; * in the vicinity of which a tradition is pre- 



* I am writing from memory, having no means of referring to the 

 original record, which will be found in the first (or second) vglume of 

 the "Transactions of the Microscopical Society" of London. The 

 general facts, however, may be depended on. 



B 



