THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 331 



near the deep end was almost horizontal, and the scimitar-like curve of the hair 

 approached half a circle. Vertical sections through the scalp, which he figured 

 in the straight hair of Chinese and Europeans, contrasted, in the vertical or 

 slightly oblique direction of the hair follicles, with the curved follicles of the 

 woolly-haired races. 



I noted that a sebaceous gland was situated close to each hair follicle about 

 opposite the juncture of its middle and upper third, and it reached almost to the 

 pigmented Malpighian layer of the epidermis. With a curved follicle the gland was 

 next its concave aspect. A band of non-striped muscle, the arrector pili, seen in 

 many sections passed obliquely from the superficial part of the cutis to end in the 

 hair follicle in proximity to the sebaceous gland. 



The sections through the cutis of the Negro, parallel to the plane of the surface, 

 varied in appearance in accordance with the distance from the epidermis. At its 

 deepest part the closed ends of the hair follicles were interspersed with coils of sweat 

 glands and small collections of fat cells in the connective tissue. The follicles were 

 cut across either transversely or obliquely. In some cases the section passed through 

 the cells of the root sheath and bulb before cornification, in others the section was 

 through the deep end of the hair itself. In each case the root sheath of the hair 

 was seen to consist of an outer division lining the follicle, and an inner division 

 investing the bulb, or the hair. The bulb, approximately circular in section, was 

 composed of small nucleated cells somewhat pigmented. The inner and outer root 

 sheaths in the plane of the bulb were of almost equal thickness, but in relation to the 

 hair the outer sheath was distinctly thicker than the inner. The cells of the inner 

 sheath were nucleated and elongated into short columns. In the outer sheath the 

 nucleated cells were more numerous, and those most external formed a distinct layer 

 next the wall of the follicle. In this plane of section the follicles with the contained 

 hairs were mostly single, though some were in pairs placed side by side (fig. 27). 

 Coiled tubes of the sweat glands, with their cellular contents, and fat lobules were 

 situated close to the hair follicles. 



In transverse sections, not quite so deep, fewer single hairs were seen and the 

 arrangement in pairs was more general. One of the twin hairs with its follicle was 

 always distinctly larger than the other. The amount of difference in size may be 

 expressed in the following figures : larger twin hair 0'0575, smaller 0'0425 ; larger 

 twin 0'06, smaller 0'03. Each hair, or a pair of twins, was enclosed in a ring-like 

 circle of connective tissue. Occasionally the section of the hair in its follicle was 

 circular, but in most cases the sides were more or less flattened, with one side indeed 

 somewhat indented, so that the section was ovoid, or slightly kidney shaped. A 

 transverse section of the flattened hairs showed two diameters, one longer than the 

 other in accordance with the degree of flattening. 



Sections made immediately below the cuticular surface showed more completely 

 the grouping of the hairs. Three hairs in their respective follicles were not uncommon, 



