CUTICLE, NAILS, HAIIt AND FEATHERS. 283 



with the nails of the fingers and toes. We are never 

 told that those personages in the East who preserve 

 the nails of the fingers without paring receive a 

 constant accession to the length of these organs du- 

 ring the whole of their lives. Indeed, we find that, 

 when the paring of the nails of the toes is utterly 

 neglected, although their length becomes inconve- 

 nient, it reaches a ne plus ultra. In these particu- 

 lars, therefore, the nutrition of hair, nails and fea- 

 thers, must be concluded to obey similar laws. 



The only question which remains is, How can we 

 suppose the nutriment to be conveyed to all the 

 parts of these organs? — The answer which I return to 

 this question, is, that this matter is sent to the 

 parts by vaporization, and appropriated by hy- 

 grometric attraction. The halitus is maintained, 

 and prevented from escaping by various circumstan- 

 ces. 



In some of these organs, it is kept up by the close 

 apposition of all their parts to organs which are per- 

 vaded by flowing liquids. This is the case with the 

 cuticle and the nails, which lie flat upon the cutis 

 vera. 



In those organs which are connected with the 

 body by a minute area, such as hairs and feathers, 

 the halitus is retained partly by hygrometric attrac- 

 tion, and partly by the close envelope afforded by 

 their own most superficial stratum. These two pro- 

 perties bear an inverse proportion to one another ; 



