Page:Mammalia (Beddard).djvu/28

8 elongated and converging slightly above and below. Dr. Maurer has called attention to the remarkable likeness between the embryonic hair when at this stage and the simple sense-organs of lower Vertebrates. Later there is formed below this a denser aggregation of the corium, which ultimately becomes the papilla of the hair. This is the apparent homologue of the first formed part of a feather, which projects as a papilla before the epidermis has undergone any modification. Hence there is from the very first a difference between feathers and hairs—a difference which must be carefully borne in mind, especially when we consider the strong superficial resemblance between hairs and the simple barbless feathers. Still later the knob of epidermic cells becomes depressed into a tubular structure, which is lined with cells also derived from the stratum Malpighii, but is filled with a continuation of the more superficial cells of the epidermis. This is the hair-follicle, and from the epidermic cells arises the hair by direct metamorphosis of those cells; there is no excretion of the hair by the cells, but the cells become the hair. From the hair-follicle also grows out a pair of sebaceous glands, which serve to keep the fully-formed hair moist.



Dr. Meijerle has lately described in some detail the parti-