The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1860-04-11
Under the Microscope.

Some years ago, minute Bit Of monde.
script something, looking more like frsg.
meAt of On old trunk, with all the hair worn
off, than anything else, was sent to an emf
nent microscopic to determine what il wss.
The microscopic placed it in the field"
and pronounced it to be piece Of human
skin-the skin Of fair mau---covered with
the hairs which grow on the naked part OF
the body. Now, the fragment had been
taken from under nail on an old church
door in Yorkshire, where, just one thousand
years ago, the skin of Danish robber, had
been nailed up, kitewise, as Q warning to all
evil doers. Time and weather had long ago
destroyed sll traces of this Danish Marsyas;
but the tradition remained in full force,
when some one more anxious than the rest
scraped away portion Of the door from un-
der one Of the nails, transmitted the same
to microscopist, and printed the result 40
we have given it.
Another time microscopy was made to
play even more important part as evidenre.
In certain late murder, where the victim
had his throat cut through both shirt and
neckerchief, the prisoner attempted to ex-
plain away the presence OF blood on knife,
which was assumed to have been the instru.
ment Of murder, by saying that he had cut
some raw beef with it, and forgotten to wipe
it arterward. The knife, with the blood up
on ts blade and shaft, was sent to mlcros-
copist, and the following was the chain OF
acts which he educed from 1t:
l. The stain was blood.
r 9. 1t was notthe blood of dead flesh. bot
] of living body, for it had corgulated whore
. it was found. .,
\ 8. 1t was not the blood OF an OK, sheep.
o or hog. ...
r 4. 1t was human blood.
:. 5. Among the blood were mixed certain
If vegetable fbres.
6. They were cotton fbres, agreeing with
}. those of the murdered mans shirt and neck
II erchief, which had both been cut through
9, 7. There were present, also, numerous
q tesselated epithelial cells. ..,
e. That is, the cells Of the mucous mem
brsne (calleA epithelal cells) were tessel
Id ated, or disposed like the stones of pave.
en- ment, which proved that they came from
n. the lining of the throat. For the mucou
r. membrane lining the throat is composed o
in 'esselated cells; that covering the root o
ed the tongueof columner cells, or cells ararng
n. cd in tall cones or cylinders; and that lin
ed ing the viscera is ciliated, or carrying sinai
er waving hairs at the tips. Thus the micros.
" cope revealed beyond doubt that this knii,
o. had cut the throat of living human body
r. which throat had been protected by q Ger
,t tain cotton fabric. The evidence Tailed Q,
as exactly with the actual and supposed con
et dition of things, that it was held to be con
\. elusive, and murderer was hung. Withou
,is the microscope ne might have escaped pun
shment altogether.
he The human hair is a singularly beautiful
in thing to look al under the microscope. 1t i
70. made of successive layers or overlappin
he cells, gradually tapering to q point like III
,tb thinnest and most infinitely twisted pspe
pr. cone. The edges are serrated with shallow
fa saw like teeth; it is perfectly translucent an
Or. marked with great many transverse line
s., exceedingly irregular and sinuous. Hog
an bristles are more like human hairs than an
nd other animals but the sinuous lines Or
,is finer and closer, and no saw teeth are vis
nv BILE at me edges. The finer hairs Of th
cd horse and ass have the overlapping plate
about az close as in the human hair, bu
they are strikngly different in the arrange
he meut OF the medulla or pith.- Chamber;
ed, Miscellany. ...... ....