Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-01-03
HEANTI-SLAVERY BUGLE.

insect-eater, furnishes hair which has a slight
vespertilineous touch superadded to the rodent
type. A series of protuberances hro visible along
the hair, like the wooden knobs 10y which a flag
staff is mounted. But on the same beast-nay
on man himself-the constitution of bristles va
ries according to the spot on which they grow.
We may lken hair to a genus Of plants, OF which
one species is q native of the eyebrows, another
of the beard; n third thriyes in the lowlands OF
the legs, while Alpine hairs betake themselves
to the summit of the head. AS n rule, the hairs
of insects are more complicated than those OF
quadrupeds. Amongst insects, the hairs Of Larvae
and caterpillars are more elaborate than those oil
the creature in its perfect (or rather, its final, be-
cause all is %perfect) form. Nevertheless, the or
ange hairs from the red-tailed bee, and the black,
white, and yellow ones from the green queen hum
ble.bee, are beautifully transparent %wands,-
something like the stem of the white lily with
out the flowers but with the leaves. But anoth-
or hairy dandy, Dermestes, the gay young larya
Of a beetle who frequents bacon-shops, sports for
his personal adorement q pretty lot of test-0b-
jects, which are, like the lilly stem, complete
with the flowers, which droop in a graceful boquet
from the top.
The next time you meet a hairy caterpillar, stop
him, and even we're lie on the Queens highway,
rob him of two or three turks Of hair. You need
not maltreat him, or do him personal injury
Simply twitch out with q pair Of pincers the SOU
vonir you want to put into your rocket; but spare
his life, and let him 90 home to his anxious
friends, tossing his head disdainiully. Or, instead
of allowing him to get off so easily, suppose you
put him into prison, Bonba- wise, because his beard
and whiskers are too long to your liking, and keep
him there, without benefit Of haOeas corpus. By
feeding your captive. you may keep him alive Till
his natural term of caterpillar existence is expired.
lie will undergo metamOrphosis and you can com
pare the scales which he wears as a butterfly or q
moth with the bristles which beset him while a
- -. II 4. -.-. H.. -
service in his juvenile days. One young larva
whom l partially plucked, had spiny prickly fur
of two or three kinds; besides those, some of his
longest and handsomest hairs were in shape, not
in color, like a peacock's tail feathers. These
thorny, branches, sharp-pointcd hairs, are a more
formidable looking defensive armor than the quilts
of the ~prickliest porcupine in Africa.
All these tiny hairs are to be examined whole
and at once, as far as the field of the microscope
will admit them. But lovers of minims chop up
larger hairs into the thinnest possible slices, exact
Ky as you would your five-shilling April cucumber,
and serve them cold with canada balsam, instead
of with pepper, oil. and vinegar. How else could
we examine the elementary structure of the whis-
kers, smellers, names, and tufts of sur dry wild
beasts,-the spines Of hedgehOgs, the quilts OF por-
cupines, and She horns of rhinoceroses ? all which
are eccentric hairs in disguise, who escape run
ming mad by a narrow shave.
Let us not quite forget the hairs of vegetables.
In some, as in those of thu Tradescantia or spider
wort, a circulation is visible. The fresh gathered
leaf of aFrench Bean is adhesive to the touch,
without being clammy or glutenous. You will find
the phenomenon to result from little hooked hairs
which lay hold of whatever they are brought into
contact with. On aged worn leaves, the booklets
are broken. But for hooks in earnest. look at
those which surround the fruit of the common bur
dock; slightly magnited, yon might do crochet
work with them, under a power a trife higher, you
might hang on them launches of venison or legs
OF beef. Down may be spoken of in the same
paragraph as hairs; the down of the seeds from
many composite flowers is extremely pleasing to
eyes that can see what it is. Transparent thorny
flaments, of spun glass brightness, are the winged
distributors Of the wide-spreading germs of thistle,
groundsel, dandelion, sOw-thistle, and n host of
their congeners. One of the ~prett:est is the down
of the garden lcttuce-seed. Botanists tell us that
many OF the parts of plants are merely hairs under
a modified form. According to this view, a net.
te-sting is only a perverted hair, whose DISPOSE.
ton is soured into misantai opy, and a propen-
sitty for mischief. Bring a nettle-sting into the
microscopic court, and he will confess that in his
basement story he has a concealed stock of poison,
which, mounting through a central tube like the
venom from a spiders fang enters your skin when
pierced. BY pressing the witness, a drop of the
deieterious fluid will appear in evidence against
him. hanging in a globule at his dagger's point.
Many objects that are simply dead white to the
naked ye,under a magnifer are beautifully trans
parent. Instances, the mildew on a rose.leaf; the
pollen OF many Howers--of the common borage, to
take one the down and bristles of many leaves !;
and minute crystals, especially those of snow.
Tiny particles of snow, neatly caught without
injury as they drop from the sky, are amongst
the most beautiful of winter ohjects-with the
drawback that you cannot comfortably observe
them, before a blazing fire, as you are supping
your nightcup of hot brandy AMI water. But, wei!
wrapped up in a bearskin coat, in the cool retreat
OF a garnet with a north aspect, you may pick and
choose amongst the grand crosses of all the orders
and legions Of honor that have ever been invented
since mankind first fell in love with stars and
carriers. Sometimes the fine sn~owpowder that
drifts in between the rickety tiles of your attic
Will answer the purpose exceedingly well but
the microscope diScriminates beautifully between
formless and forn.ful materials. Thus, white
arsenic in powder is s%hapeless under the micro.
scope, there are no distinctive characters to be
seized, unless the absence of regular crystalline
forms the same of colophane, a powdered resin.
which is kept In the pharmacy as a styptic. Ly.
copod dust, which much resembles the latter to
the naked eye-both being seen as n fine Yellow
ish powder-present roughly rounded grains, Of
very equal diameter, which might be mistaken,
at first sight, for irregularshaped pollen grains.
Dext-ine, with its clear, white, semi. transparent,
ovoid, or ovalish grains, has a likeness to other
pollen. C%amphOr, crushed as near to powder as
you crn get 1t. presents the az pearance of clear
Jumps of ice, as produced at table in summer.
time,
In art manufactures, an endless variety of hints
may be stolen from the disclosures made Sy the
microscope, without fear of an injunction being
issued. There is nothing dishonorable in Dor.
rowing patterns intended only for the gaze of
animaicule admirers, or in forestalling the de-
sign of foliage proposed to be forthcoming next
spring; | should be very glad of a worsted-
work foot-rug to warm my cold inactive feet, af-
ter the pattern of the back of the narrow leaved
sage-leat, whose peculiar style | have Just dis
covered. Try it fair directresses of Berlin-wool
shops; it is a charming novelty. You will have
no difficulty with the light-green shaggy vein
ingS GU the plain dark green ground; Tut how
you will manage the little balls which constitute
the originality of its device, l must leave to
your own ingenuity to invent. Look also at the
back of the leaf Of the Deutzia scabra; il is COW
cred with hairs in the form of many-rayed stars
and would make a delightful mat. The upper
surface of the leaf is garnished with larger stars
composed of fewer rays, mostly five. You might
border the central galaxy of your mat with a